


Starlight and Firemoon- Part 1

by PeneighDzredfohl



Series: Starlight and Firemoon [1]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: #I love playing around with characters-be prepared, #Sometimes you want to kill your brother, #fluffy drama #How does a guy get a kiss around here #elves and dwarves are such cock blockers, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, It's done!!! So technically no more cliff hangers (well except chapter 16-literally), Kíli/Tauriel Fluff, Not Beta Read, Not much of Bilbo-Gandalf-Bard...YET, Timeline What Timeline, WORK HAS BEEN UPDATED FROM FIRST POSTING
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-06-28 04:06:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 47,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15699813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeneighDzredfohl/pseuds/PeneighDzredfohl
Summary: They walked in starlight, under a firemoon. This story is a UA-Universe Alteration-My character are in the exact same Tolkien universe, but I am altering plot points, character traits, and timelines.  There is no Lord of the Rings that comes after this story.  It never happens. *(see endnotes)  Too many people with sad endings, it would take too long to give everyone a Happily Ever After.  Besides, I am head over heels in love with Kíli and Tauriel.  It is their story that wants to be told. If you have longed for the perfect happily ever after for Kíli and Tauriel and a romance so sweet you just have to visit your dentist for cavities, I think you will like this story very much.  It is pretty much fluff with some small bits of fluffy drama, but I just wanted a story that made me happy and fulfilled my need for that HEA they didn’t get in the movie.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. -Abraham Lincoln  
> If you don’t like what I have done with the story, stop at your earliest convenience and go read The Hobbit, by Tolkien again to make yourself happy. Don’t complain to me. Don’t leave snarky, nasty reviews. A little kindness won’t kill you.  
> I would love polite, constructive "comments", on things that might improve my story. This is my first work made public.  
> I am not Tolkien, I am Peneigh of the Happily Ever After’s and the Gushy Romances. I write stories with intimacy, not empty sex. These are not smut, but lovemaking and bonding hearts. I listed it as explicit because I do go into detail with their lovemaking, and that squicks some people out. I don’t write “Then they kissed. And now they are falling asleep in each other’s arms very pleased with themselves” LOL. I get intense, but tastefully so.  
> If that is not your cup of tea…DO NOT READ THIS and waste your time. If you are a troll, may I suggest you go outside and play in the sun! I hear it is good for your complexion.  
> In setting up the first 9 chapters it is a tad dry -but they go by quick (it is hard to slip a lot of humor in there. With Fili and Kili though they are the perfect comic relief) and a slow burn. I don't want our lovebirds getting hot and heavy too soon with elven and dwarven customs such as they are (Wiki it).  
> _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
> UPDATE: (March 2019) I am aware that this work is rather sloppy, my humblest apologies and I ask for your patience as I am slowly moving through all my works to polish them up. As I improve as a writer (Or I can find a BETA) I will make changes to get the quality up to snuff. Real life is killing me. When I started all this I was not in the situation I am now. It is difficult for me to keep all system running smoothly in Middle Earth and my life at the same time. As time allows I am giving my baby (this work LOL) all my love to make it the vision the characters have in my head for it. That you the reader deserve. Thanks.

 

 

**_Prolog:_ **

**_Imagine if you will…Ilúvatar_ ** **_telling Aulë that even though he is miffed the dwarf Vala made the dwarves without his permission AND before the elves (no favoritism there*sarcasm*), he would give the dwarves a longer lifespan than mortal men._**

**** **_But that He saw there would one day be enmity between the dwarves and the elves. That does not make him happy as he loves his elves so much._ **

**** **_So, he creates a Prophecy for Aulë to work with so that when the enmity between the dwarves and elves will be overcome then will the dwarves be granted immortality.  That the dwarves would hange over time. To become as He, Ilúvatar, would have meant them to originally be before Aulë went off and did his own thing, messing up Ilúvatar’s plans for the dwarves on Arda._ **

**** **_This Prophecy would lead and guide both elf and dwarf and the future of that union into a new age on Arda and He, Ilúvatar, would come back to the world and look over all that was happening, seeing if anything needed fixing and make sure the world was the paradise he created it to be._ **

**** **_Aulë is cool with that, says he will work with the Prophecy and make sure that it happens naturally and in its own time. All is good, and that is where our two lovebirds come in._ **

Our Story Begins…

**Kíli’s POV-**  We were on high alert today.  Not that we hadn’t been most of the time since we started all this back in the Blue Mountains months ago.  Mother had not wanted me to go; she said I was too young and too reckless.  I wanted to be with Uncle Thorin and my brother Fíli. To see the world and have some adventure.  Maybe make a name for myself.  Uncle had not told me why we were on this journey other than old Gandalf had told him it was time to make it.  I kept my ears open and my mouth shut. That led to me finding out quite a bit.  I remember being so excited. 

Well, I can’t say it had not been adventurous nor dangerous.  I was showing I could hold my own.  Today we had to ask the king of the Woodland realm elves if we might have safe passage through his lands to continue on our way.  Getting through the mountains had been crazy, so a nice safe walk through the woods with some extra guards would be a pleasant change of pace.  I could use a full night’s sleep. 

 I was excited to see if this palace was as astounding as the one in Rivendell had been. I didn’t see what all the fuss was between the elves and dwarves.  Lord Elrond and his people were very hospitable, and we spent a pleasant fortnight there. So, I didn’t know why we were on high alert other than Gandalf had to leave us before we came here. Except for Fíli and me, every single one of the company was in battle mode.  I was just hoping for a nice hot supper and a soft bed tonight.

**Tauriel’s POV-**

I looked at the ceiling of my room. The faint morning light coming in the windows telling me it was time to get up. 

 Thinking to myself, ‘it is just like yesterday, the day before, and all the centuries I had been alive’. I could not help myself but sigh at the boredom I felt, the monotony that was my life. I wanted a purpose; I wanted it to mean something in the grander scheme of things. 

Being captain of the guard was fun at first, so don’t get me wrong, I loved being a warrior.

 The problem was that you had 10 minutes of adrenaline every once in a while, which was not enough to make up for the hours and days and weeks and years and centuries of just the same old thing. Drills, practice, and more practice, border runs, guard duty-Ugh!

I was excellent at what I did.  Thranduil was very pleased with me, my men respected me, looked up to me, but I longed for… something.  I simply didn’t know what I wanted. 

I had a good life at the palace; I had friends, Legolas was like a brother to me.  I sighed when I sat up and wished something really different would happen once in a while.  Was that too much to ask the Valar for? 

Thranduil had a delegation of dwarves coming today.  The leader I was told was the dwarven king, Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain. Though why on middle earth Thorin had traveled all this way from Ered Luin, to a home that was no longer his and he was no longer the king of, should prove to be at least a break in the mundane today.  I was so interested in seeing him again after all these decades.  I doubt he would remember me. He was so young at the time.  Even just to see how he had changed into a dwarf grown, had me in anticipation of the meeting.

Then back to the same old grind tomorrow.

 

Early Autumn TA 2941

***The Early Years***

**Tauriel’s POV-**  

I was waiting next to King Thranduil, along with the rest of the Royal guards for the travelers to appear.

 As they filed in one by one, I studied them. 

 They were your typical dwarves. All short, with bulbous noses and absolute birds’ nests for beards. Their clothing was a mess, as though they had been traveling a long way in some rather rough conditions.  

 I wondered where was their reputed leader, The King under the Mountain?  Ah, yes, I thought, as a very dour, yet quite regal dwarf came up the stairs, that must be him.  He did not have a huge beard and was taller than the rest. I thought if he smiled he might be rather handsome.

 I could still see the young dwarfling prince in the dwarf grown before me. But he had a bitterness to him and the kind of pride that only got one in trouble. His eyes held no warmth and were rather dull. My heart broke at this.

 I wondered why his younger brother was not with him. Perhaps as the heir to spare he had to stay back in Ered Luin?  I wondered as well, how his baby sister was.

 When the last two dwarves came forward, I forgot everything!

 I found I couldn’t stop looking at the tall, dark-haired dwarf with the sable brown eyes. He hardly had any beard at all.  I no longer heard what was being said and everything around me kind of faded, except for the dark-haired dwarf. I marveled at him.  Seeing in him, innocence, youth, and inexperience, but at the same time, he carried himself with a regal pride, and strong character.

 I wondered if he was Thorin’s son or a relative through Thorin’s brother or sister somehow, they had an uncanny resemblance. I was quite bemused as I watched him smile. His eyes were lit up, and his whole countenance was one of mischief and fun.  He was so relaxed, even in such a tense setting.  

 Abruptly I felt a gentle nudge on my arm.  I quickly shook my head, then saw everyone looking at me. My face was on fire as I had no idea what had happened or what had been said. 

 Thranduil cleared his throat and repeated to me that I was to take the “guests” to their accommodations. 

 I was shocked, for the king to command  _me_  to take the guests, rather than his steward, meant imprisonment, not proper treatment of such high-ranking guests. Their leader was the King under the mountain for the Valar’s sake.

 So, his followers were high ranking as well.  It was extremely embarrassing how little Thranduil thought of them to be doing this. 

 Knowing I could not question the king, I was torn by this order as I signaled my guards and began leading the dwarves to the prison cells. 

 It was only the element of surprise that gave us the advantage of getting the dwarves in the cells with little fuss. They were understandably angry to have their weapons and outer clothing taken away. Then imprisoned. I refused to let the guards strip them to their undergarments as the king wanted, I would not humiliate them.

 I personally brought the dark-haired dwarf to his cell. I wouldn’t check him, I refused to demean him for some reason. 

“Are you not going to search me, like the others?” 

I found it quite impossible to hide a smile when he quipped at me, “I might have something dangerous down my trousers ya know.” 

Trying my best to sound stern and authoritative I said, “Or you may have nothing at all in them.”

He broke out in a huge grin at my sassiness. That made me smile too. We stared at each other for a long while, saying nothing, just gazing, and smiling at one another. I didn’t know why, but my heart was pounding hard, and I felt rather flushed watching him.  

I was hailed. I quickly turned and began to walk away.

I felt him staring at my back, so I snuck one last glance. 

He was indeed still watching me. With a cheeky grin on his face. 

 I grinned and shook my head, as I thought to myself again, ‘he is quite tall for a dwarf, and I had never seen one so breathtakingly handsome before.’

Once I had set the final guard, I was quite beside myself with the injustice of it all, so I hid in the shadows to hear what was being said.  I didn’t know why they weren’t speaking in their native tongue but was glad of it.

Upon learning of their quest and how imperative time was, plus my burning curiosity and fascination I found myself having over the dark-haired dwarf, I began thinking of how to safely get them on their way. While still keeping the knowledge of what I was thinking of doing from the king. 

I knew enough elves that would follow my request for help regardless of the king’s orders; it was just how was I to get them to Lake Town quickly to evade recapture and/or evade the marauding orcs that were all along the way.         

While lost in thought, I was rather unexpectedly brought back to reality, by loud complaining and yelling. 

I smelled something nasty in the air. Then heard metal on stone and what I took to be dwarves swearing.  I peeked around the corner. The elves were simply ignoring the dwarves, so I moved to get a closer look. 

I saw platters and bowls all over the ground with indescribable globs of what I could only surmise must have been passed off as food. 

It smelled vile!

Now I was doubly dismayed and embarrassed, not only for myself but for my people as well.  We were not fond of dwarves in general, but just because the king was disgruntled with these dwarves because of their leader’s heritage, did not mean he should be treating them this way. 

I hurried off to the kitchens of the palace and with a little wit and a few shy glances I got the cooks to prepare a meal much more worthy of the dwarves as guests (rather than prisoners) and with what I thought they would prefer for food. 

As the meals were packed to bring to the prisoners, I was able to gain the aid of the kitchen staff to help me bring the food down to the dwarves. 

I was hoping the dwarves would be willing to speak Westron with me.

 I hid in the shadows to look into the first cell.  There was enough elven light to see Thorin was in there. He was extremely commanding. I may still be taller than him and older than him, but it was actually rather intimidating to think of addressing the ‘King Under the Mountain.’

He had such a regal presence to him, that even though I last remembered him as a small frightened dwarfling, I almost felt compelled to bow down before him. 

I wished he could remember me, but it had been nearly a lifetime ago. And life had been harsh to him. I was only one tiny moment in his life, so it would surprise me if he remembered me.

I was frustrated that I had not been briefed on who they all were so that I could address them all correctly, but a friendly smile and kind words would have to do. 

Nervously, I introduced myself to him, “King Thorin, I am Tauriel. I am here to help you and your people.”

He just glared at me. So, no. He no longer remembered me. It stung a little, but I would not fault him. Nor could I honestly couldn't blame him. 

 The kitchen and house staff had begun to arrive. I directed them to pass out the meals.

I tried apologizing to Thorin for Thranduil’s behavior and the treatment they were receiving, but he just turned to his food and ignored me. Again, that little sting. I should not let it bother me so.

             I wasn’t sure if I should tell him I was trying to plan a way of getting them all out tonight. I decided until I had a real plan I would remain silent. 

I went to each cell to make sure that the food had been served, and that the house staff had brought the blankets and pillows I requested to each cell.  I was concerned for them all, but something lead me back to the dark-haired dwarf.

 I was standing in front of his cell while he ate his meal.  He did not notice me at first. He was eating voraciously.  I think he felt me watching him because he turned his head to look at me.

With his mouth so full, his cheeks were puffed out. He could only nod at me. I smiled at him; he looked so adorably funny.  

As before when I put him in the cell, I found myself not only drawn to him but reacting to him as well.  Again, my heart was pounding, and I felt quite flushed, plus a desire started in me that surprised me as I had only just met him!

Elves simply did not feel like this towards dwarves. I mean it was unheard of, it had never happened!  It was inconceivable, irrational, bizarre, not at all natural! But he was just so handsome and funny and, well, I guess it had never happened before now, until me.

But, elves only felt like this for their soul mate.

How could a dwarf, I had only met twice for mere moments, be my soul mate?! It was ridiculous and preposterous. I must just be overtired is all. Perhaps I was hallucinating all this?

Once he finished his mouthful of food, he greeted me. “Thank you so much for bringing real food. Um, not that the other, uh, stuff, wasn’t, uh…well… Oh and the blankets and pillows. It will make sleeping in this damp, drafty, uh, oh, I only meant… agh! _'Abanjabl!_ (stone-brain) Thank you, just thank you very much.” 

I slowly lowered myself to the steps and watched him as he finished his meal. I must have made him almost as nervous as I was.

            He walked over to the bars once he was done, “My name is Kíli.” 

“Kee-lih?” I repeated back to him, to be sure I was saying it correctly.

“Yes, that’s right.” He smiled at me, seeming pleased that I put in extra effort to pronounce it properly.

I stood and extended my hand to him. When he took it, he kissed the back of it, taking me by complete surprise that he did that.  My heart was now really racing, making me so flustered, I blurted out, “I’m Tauriel.” Blushing furiously because it sounded so silly in Westron.

 “Your name is so beautiful Tauriel, it suits you.” I could see him trying to work my name around in his mouth.

I should not have been affected by such flattery, but something rang true in his voice that said to me he really meant it. My curiosity overcame my astonishment, and I began to talk to him and question him as to their journey.

He only told me what I had already overheard, but as we spoke, he turned something over and over in his hand. 

I questioned him, he told me, “It is a talisman; from my mother.  She felt I was too young for such a journey, but I wanted to be with my brother and uncle.  She gave it to me, so I would keep my promise to come back home.” 

I knew that that was going to be a difficult promise to keep. 

 I asked if I might see it and he passed it to me.  I moved my finger across it and felt how smooth it was.  The runes had been carved with exquisite craftsmanship.  It was truly beautiful and so shiny, made of a black stone unknown to me. 

I inquired of him what the runes said; he replied, “Return to me.” 

“It is very beautiful and quite precious,” as I handed it back to him. 

He smiled at me and said, “She feels I am too reckless.” 

 “And are you?” 

His smile was a little sad I thought as he replied, “I have my moments.”

I explained that I was going to get them out and get them on their way to Lake Town before dawn, but I had to work a few things out yet. 

Kíli was concerned that if I went against the will of the king, I would be punished. 

I just laughed, “I have been a thorn in his side since I was a child.  I am quite sure he will put on a great show of rage and frustration, but secretly, he will most likely be pleased to be rid of the lot of you and probably quite impressed with whatever plan I come up with.”

  “In fact,” I said, “He was probably just waiting for me to figure something out and that is why you are all in the cells.  He could snub all of you and then wipe his hands of the whole thing when I free you.” 

I told Kíli of the idea that was I working on in my head, but I needed to talk to the cooks again. I told him to hold tight I would be back soon.  

He said with an absolutely straight face, “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere right at the moment.” 

I giggled, trying to quickly stifle it without any success at all, grinning like an imbecile at him. He grinned right back at me again.

 

**Kíli’s POV-**  

What a mess we were in. Something as simple as just passing through the elven territory had led us to be imprisoned.  From what I could hear of Uncle Thorin and Balin's whisperings, it was because my great-grandfather had some trade deal go wrong long before I was born.

I was shown to my cell by a red-haired female elf. I stepped into my cell expecting her to search me like all the rest of the company was being searched. 

She just stared at me.

So, I quipped, “Aren’t you going to search me too? I might have something dangerous down my trousers.” I chuckled to myself thinking I would shock her with that.

 I was the one who got the shock when she shot back at me, “Or you may have nothing at all in them.”

 I had to laugh and grin at her sassiness. That was too funny.

 She smiled at me for the longest time.

 She truly was exquisite. She looked different than all the other elves I had seen. She had larger ears and stunning green eyes. Plus, all the other elves had this kind of alabaster colored skin like they never went out into the sun, but hers was a soft pink and cream color with a large smattering of freckles over her face.  She was the first red-haired elf I had ever seen outside of Grey Havens. Her hair was so long, nearly to her calves.

When she was hailed she slowly closed my cell door while still watching me. Then walked away. I could not keep my eyes off her. The way her hips swayed when she walked.  It looked like two cats fighting in a burlap sack.

It had me so mesmerized, I didn’t notice right away she was looking back at me. I grinned at her for being caught staring. She smiled right back at me, making my heart pound. I wanted to talk to her some more.

 We had all tried to break the bars, but Balin shouted to us to just stop, there was no way out of  _this_  prison without the king’s permission, so we were as good as dead, now that Uncle Thorin had insulted the king. 

 Uncle Thorin shouted that the king had insulted him first. 

 I just rolled my eyes and slumped down on the cold stone.  I was starving, cold and really tired.  This whole quest had been nothing but one trial after another.  I figured we’d have some trouble at some point. Orcs or maybe raiders. But everything we had been through so far with the trolls, then the orcs, the rock giants after that and then goblins. Only to find ourselves almost dying yet again from the same orcs, and now this.  It had been bad luck from the start.

Balin said the pale orc and Uncle Thorin knew each other as adversaries from long ago and we would be followed and hunted until one of the two of them were dead.

I growled to myself, how depressing, the whole thing!

 I put my head back on the wall and thought of the beautiful female guard that had put me in my cell. Now she was amazing. 

I was a bit confused too though. Because she just stared at me, smiling at me, and I could not help myself but feel strongly for her.  She was funny, beautiful, can’t forget the sass, and a mystery to me.

Because elves and dwarves did not mix like that.

For dwarves, it was an actual law and a religious thing that we were never to take a mate from another race…ever. None had that I could recall. Most dwarves I had listened to found them too tall and thin, almost fragile. To a dwarf, an elf was simply not at all attractive in any way. 

Until now.

I found myself very interested in the she-elf.

I could hear Uncle and Fíli, then a few others in the company start yelling. Then what I thought was metal on stone.

I was all the way at the bottom in the last cell, so I had no idea what was happening until an elf shoved something so disgusting and foul into my cell I had to kick it quickly back out and hold my nose. 

What _was_ that?!  Food? 

My mind was boggled that we were being treated like this.  I was slowly starting to grasp why everyone had been on such high alert and why so many dwarves hated elves. 

It must be because of these elves. The ones in Rivendell were very hospitable to us.  A little formal, I thought, but still they fed us, well, it was leaves and stuff, but at least I knew it was supposed to be food. The slop they just shoved in my cell was vile. 

Now I was nearly beyond depressed.  We had no hope of ever getting out of here.  I had no idea where Gandalf had gone or if we would ever see him again.

 We would never make it to the mountain in time for Durin’s day at this rate, and I was really hungry. 

I wished the female elf would come back, at least she was nice.  I just sat there in the cold feeling quite sorry for myself. I had no idea the time, I wasn’t really tired, probably because I was so hungry. I just closed my eyes and tried to think of better things.

Suddenly someone was at the cell door with a small basket that they slid in to me and then moved off.  I sniffed, smelling fresh bread, some kind of cooked meat, and butter!  There was definitely butter involved in there somewhere, I think.

I moved over and opened it. There was a meat pie and a large buttered roll along with some berries and a small bottle of wine.  Well, if it wasn’t poisoned, I was all for it. If it was poisoned, I would die with a full stomach at least.

I was so involved with filling my stomach I didn’t realize I was being watched. I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  Turning my head, I looked out the cell door, the female elf was just standing there. Staring at me, watching me.

She said nothing, so I nodded to her, then quick wolfed down the rest of the food.

I stood to introduce myself. Hoping she would stay and talk with me. 

 “My name is Kíli.” 

She said it back to me, as if to be sure it was correct the way she hear me say it. I really liked that. It sounded wonderful in her accent.

When she offered me her hand, I took it, softly kissing the back of it.

I knew that took her by surprise when she blushed beautifully and sputtered out her name. 

It was lovely. Tauriel.  I told her so, and she blushed even more. 

I was trying to figure out what to say to keep her with me when she asked me what our journey was.  I knew I couldn’t tell her everything, but I just had to say something so that she would stay with me.

I told her basically that we were journeying back to our homeland in the east.  She asked where in the east.  The only dwarves she knew of were in the Iron Hills. I said they are kin of mine, but my family was from The Lonely Mountain. 

I knew I shouldn’t say more and was wracking my brains as to what else to say. I stuck my hand in my pocket and felt my mother’s rune stone. I nervously began to rub it as I just prattled on about inconsequential things.

She suddenly asked me what the stone was. I sighed, glad to finally have something interesting to talk about.

As I told her about it, she really was very interested. It pleased me when she wanted to see it, how she almost reverently touched it. 

When she handed it back to me, she looked at me, seemed to make up her mind about something.

She bobbed her head and then said, “I am going to help all of you get out of here before dawn.” 

That shocked me, then scared me.  “What if the king finds out, you will be punished.”

She brushed it off as if it were nothing, “I will be back as soon as I can. I have a few ideas about how to do this and need to get more information before I try it.” 

She must have been rather deep in thought because she told me just to stay where I was, and she would return.

I wanted to laugh but instead said, “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere right at the moment.” 

She looked at me funny; then she blushed again as she realized what she had said.  She tried so hard not to giggle at herself, but it didn’t work. Her eyes sparkled when she again grinned at me…I fell in love with her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Helping dwarves escape is a lot more fun when you have an older brother like Legolas, who has a bunch of friends more than up for a bit of excitement. With falling in love, on the other hand, too many dwarves and elves can make romance a bit challenging. Tauriel and Kili are more than up for the challenge though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a slow burn. Sorry, not sorry. But all good things come to those who wait. Besides, these are not only two different cultures but two different races who have hated each other for millennia. Kili and Tauriel have a lot to learn about each other. The story is finished, so I will update often, that way we can get to the HEA faster!! Shall we get to know our intrepid lovebirds a little better? I think so.

**Tauriel’s POV-**

As I ran to the kitchens, the idea percolating in my mind seemed like it would really work.  It had to, as I had no other ideas.  When I finally located the cook, resting after the evening meals but before prep for the morning breakfast, he just looked at me and said, “I feel trouble has walked in my door and I am going to be involved in it somehow.” 

I smiled at him and then laid out my plan of the wine casks they send down river to trade with the humans.  "Would it be possible if a few empty, but not truly empty, barrels went down the river in the morning before dawn?" 

The cook just shook his head and said, “there is no point in arguing with you. As you would just sneak in and mess things up anyway.”  So, he showed me the barrels that were all ready and set up for use, along with the lever and hatch in which to send them down river. Then he warned me of the orcs that patrolled the river for any mischief they could cause us.  “if these barrels have something other than wine in them, then those somethings would be helpless in the currents of the river to be fighting off the orcs while trying to stay afloat. You will need to send help along to guard the shores and to follow the barrels and protect them.” 

Oh goodness! This was beginning to getting out of hand.  He asked me, “why are you doing this?”

All I could think of were those sable brown eyes of the dark-haired dwarf, Kíli, looking at me.  To the cook, I simply stated, “I must help. What the king is doing is wrong.”  The cook just winked at me and I felt my cheeks flame.  Once I was done in the kitchens I began to hunt around for my foster brother, the prince, Legolas.  He was as much up for a good adventure as I was, and he had better connections to which elves would help the dwarves. 

            Legolas was interested and had to laugh at the thought of his father spewing outrage at his son and his ward slipping this past him when, in reality, he thought as I did. That dwarves were really not to be trusted, but this treatment was wrong. He too felt that his father already knew that we were up to something.  He was not the king for nothing. 

With Legolas off rounding up adventuresome elves, I slipped back to Kíli’s cell to explain what would happen.  He was concerned for me, but I brushed it off. 

 “I will be back before dawn with the keys. Get some rest now, good night.” I moved from cell to cell telling the dwarves to be ready for a hasty departure very soon.

I was far too nervous to sleep but I laid down to at least rest my body if my mind would not be still.  Legolas was soon knocking on my door, I got up and answered it. “The men are ready outside, your horse as well. As soon as you get the dwarves on their way you can quickly catch up.”

There was a great feast still going on even this early in the morning giving me hope it would cover any noise we made.  I slipped down to the wine cellar and got the keys from the passed-out guards. Silently moving back up to the cells. 

I let them out one by one but had to keep telling them to be quiet as I locked the doors behind them. Hoping no one would notice anything until breakfast.  I got ahead of them to lead them down when one complained, “But we are going down.” 

“Yes, down to the wine cellar, now hush.” 

Still far too loud for my liking another one groused, “Why the wine cellar, we are only going deeper in not getting out?” 

I ground my teeth and hissed, “Trust me, please, but be silent.”

The guards were going to have wretched headaches when they got up and would be in a heap of trouble, but it served them right…oh wait, that was the captain in me, I thought with a mirthless chuckle.  I wanted them to be passed out.  My nerves were strung tight as a harp when I told the dwarves to get into the barrels. 

Oh, my goodness!! You would have thought I was telling them to fall on their swords with all the noise they made in protest. 

I had finally reached my limit.

I tersely commanded them to get in or I would stuff each and every single one of them in and nail a lid shut on them! 

The King barked at the men in his language, they still grumbled but at least they all got in.  Kíli had me rolling my eyes as he was acting like this was more fun than he had had in ages.  By the Valar, if I pulled this off I was going to take a vacation when I got back. HA! More likely I would be confined to my room for what I was doing. At least it would be quiet.  They carried on like a flock of fussy hens.

I said, “Now hold on tight, the drop is a long one and the water is fast.” 

Before they could squawk about anything else I pulled the lever, the floor shifted; they were off.  Once the floor was back in place and I had hung up the keys, I ran for all I was worth out the back entrance. Found my horse. Spurred him into action so I was able to quickly catch up to the guards as we all waited for the barrels to come through.  I checked with Legolas that he had brought the dwarves clothing, gear, and weapons; he had.  One less thing to worry about.  I thank him.

He said, “This is unbelievable what we are doing.” 

“Well,” I said, “Thranduil has gotten too used to things going his way all the time.  Shaking things up occasionally is good for the heart.” 

Legolas grinned and said, “My heart is going about a mile a minute.” 

It didn’t take long with how fast the current was. Good thing too because the sky was at dawn twilight. The guards would be changing shifts soon.  We all paced our horses to follow, knowing this leg of the journey would be the least dangerous as we were so close to the palace.  We most likely would not see orcs today.  It would take roughly three days to get to Lake Town if we were lucky.

 There were some rapids, and a bit of white water, nothing like tomorrow would be. As the sun came up I could see that every dwarf was soaked to the bone. More than a few looked seasick, the King looked like he was ready to kill and Kíli, oh Kíli. Let’s just say he was having the time of his life.  It was hysterical to watch him, and I could not help but laugh to myself as I watched his antics.  He was still having fun when we decided we had gone far enough for the day.  We were a long way from the palace, if anyone was coming after us they would have found us by now.  With the rough water starting soon, I felt it would be better to get a head start the next day.

The dwarves had come to a calm in the river where we could pull them to the river bank to set camp for the night. They were understandably exhausted, and rather wobbly when they got out. I had the elves fixed them a meal for tender stomachs.  It was a filling meal but not heavy, and not something that would sit all night in their bellies. The elves had brought the dwarves belongings over for me to be sorted, then hand them out. I had brought extra blankets as I knew they would be quite soaked. They seemed grateful to at least use them to dry off somewhat with. Once I felt they were settled in their own camp for the night and I had set a guard for the area I moved to go to the elves camp for the night.

 Kíli was waiting for me and asked if he might talk to me.  I was a little unsure of what to do but he was very persuasive. I realized I really didn’t have much willpower to resist his offer.  We walked to the river bank where he found a log, then sat there, patting the seat next to him looking up at me.  My goodness he’s rather bold I surmised and yet, I found myself sitting next to him. 

“Tauriel, I can’t thank you enough for helping us get this far.  I know my uncle will never say it, but we probably would have been in those cells a long time before Gandalf found us. By then we would have been too late for our meeting at the mountain.” 

I was nervously playing with a strand of my hair, again feeling flustered, yet I was pleased by his gratitude.  I simply said, “You are very welcome, but we still have a ways to go to get you all to Lake Town.  The water will get much rougher after this with a lot of swells and white water.  You will have to be very careful. You seemed to be having far too much fun today Kíli.”

He smiled at me and said, “You were watching me?” 

I blushed rather exceedingly, “How could I not, you were so funny!  All the other poor dwarves looked rather seasick and you looked like it was the most fun you’ve ever had.”  I had to laugh at him again and he laughed too. 

“Well,” he said, “it was rather fun after that first dunking.  Falling that far in the dark, into chilly water was a little scary."

I felt I was getting far too familiar with him, so I changed the subject. “The other elves and I will be on the banks following you in case of orcs.  They slink around here trying to cause any trouble for my people that they can. Once we get you to Lake Town, we will leave you as we will no longer be on the King’s land at that point.” 

“Tauriel, then perhaps you would continue on with the company.  We could really use your skills to complete our mission.” 

I had no idea what to say.  I was very flattered, but I didn’t think it would work.  I just told him, “We shall have to see at that point.”  He gave me one of his winning smiles and I blushed yet again and then said good evening and left for my camp. I was quite exhausted at that point, falling asleep quickly.

The sun was up when I awoke. My dreams had been quite distracting, so I was a bit tired.  Kíli playing a large roll in those dreams.  I quickly got breakfast and then went to the dwarves’ camp to collect their things.  They were all up as well and ready to go. With some help, we loaded their belongings up. Unfortunately, as we were breaking camp a small sortie of orcs came out of nowhere.  We had the dwarves’ weapons packed, so we elves surrounded them. Several of my men flushed all the orcs out.  I normally used my bow when it came to orcs as I really did not like getting near the filthy brutes. There was just no time! I took on one with my daggers as it parried with its sword, but it was clumsy, and I was able to slash its guts out, then quickly moving to help with a more troublesome orc two of my men were dealing with.  I came up from behind, quickly dispatching it by slashing its throat before it even knew what was happening.  As I looked for the other orcs I saw my men had killed them.  I asked for a report and was told unfortunately one had gotten away, so we should expect trouble quite soon.

I went back to the dwarves. Explained what had happened and that they needed to get into the barrels as fast as they could, so we could get to a better location.  This time there was no grumbling. They went quickly to the shore, starting to get in.  We had to help them and somehow it was Kíli that needed my help.  I just sighed and shook my head, smiling to myself.  He almost literally bounced into the barrel!

I was getting ready to shove it out into the current when he shouted to me, “You were amazing Tauriel!  I’ve never seen anything like it!” 

I thanked him again, then quickly pushed him out.  I did add a little extra spin to his barrel though making him laugh at me for doing that.  I smiled and then got back to my horse. We were off again only now, I could not spend as much time watching the dwarves.  They were handling it as best they could, but they would be waterlogged again tonight. It was a good thing the weather was still holding warm for this time of year, so they would not freeze. 

It was harder to follow the dwarves as it seemed the river’s course had changed since the previous year.  We were halfway through the day when scouts came back at full speed with enough time to give warning of orcs. 

Legolas shouted to the dwarves, “ORC ATTACK!!”

They crouched as low as they could in the barrels as that was all they could do. We had their weapons!  The Orcs had picked the perfect place for an ambush as the river narrowed at this point and they were on both sides.  We spread out as best we could and loosed our arrows at them.  They were much more focused on trying to hit the dwarves than us! I was completely enraged.

Like a blur, Legolas bolted past me towards a branch hanging over the river. He jumped from his horse and landed on the branch. To everyone’s astonishment, he jumped down and was straddling two barrels while loosing arrows like a madman at the orcs giving them reason to pause. That was all we needed. 

With Legolas jumping from barrel to barrel shooting ahead of the dwarves he was able to get to more orcs clearing a path for the rest of us.  We broke into two parts.  I was in front covering Legolas with half my men and the other half were in back cleaning up the stragglers.  I saw Legolas grab a thick vine pulling himself up, then swinging it towards the bank where I was able to bring up his horse. He landed on it at a full gallop.  We proved to be too much for the orcs and the few that were left disappeared into the woods as we raced on. By the time we decided to pull off and stop, the river’s course had the dwarves too far out to wade out and get them, so we had to throw them ropes and haul them in. 

The day had taken its toll on everyone, so we just had a quick dinner after I handed the dwarves their equipment.  We all camped together that night.  I was restless worrying about the next day.  I had set a double guard that would take short shifts through the night.  The dwarves wanted to help but I firmly told them they needed to reserve their strength for the next day.  I explained that we had enough food for breaking our fast and then some travel rations.  The rations called lembas would sustain a man all day with just a single small bite, but it was not satisfying and left you wanting something with flavor and texture.  We would have to turn around once we reached Lake Town and would need the rations if we could not hunt due to orcs.  They were not happy having a bunch of elves protecting them but Thorin said they would do as we wished.

I told them about the plans to hunt in the morning after breaking our fast. The dwarves said they would be able to fish.  That worked well for all of us, and I thanked them. 

Kíli was waiting for me again but this time I was glad to talk to him. We sat on the beach and he complimented me with so much exuberance on my fighting skills.  I was curious why and asked him. 

He said, “I have never seen a woman fight before.” 

“Dwarven women do not fight?” 

“No, they do not because there are fewer than males and so few children that the males protected them at all costs.  You have great skill and it was amazing to watch you fight!”  

I felt myself becoming quite taken with him.  I asked him, “What weapons do you use?”

“Mostly a bow, but I am quite good with my sword. May I see one of your daggers?”

I pulled one out handing it to him.  He looked it over very carefully and was quite impressed with the craftsmanship of it. 

I said, “It is best for both slashing and stabbing.” 

“You are excellent with your bow as well, Tauriel.”  He handed it back to me, “Most of the elves I’ve seen used bows and javelins instead of swords.” He paused in thought for a moment, then asked me, “Will you come with us Tauriel?  After seeing you fight, your skills would come in handy.  Uncle Thorin may not think so, but we could really use an extra warrior.” In the background, we heard someone yell for him. Sighing and rolling his eyes he said, “I need to get back. Let me help you up.”

 Before I could say goodnight, he held out one hand with his fingers outstretched, “Good night Tauriel.” 

I looked at his proffered hand. Then slowly reached out, he curled his fingers around mine.  I looked at him, blushing furiously, with my heart pounding again.

Not sure at all what to say, so I wished him sweet dreams.

He smirked at me saying, “They have been of late.”

Causing me to smile and if it were possible to blush even more.  I began to let go slowly and when just our fingertips touched I whispered back to him, “Mine have been as well Kíli.” I quickly scooted off. When I glanced back at him he was standing there with his mouth open. Then he broke into a huge grin and began to follow me back to the camp. I could hear him humming. I felt myself smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The romance is heating up...but those darn big brothers! Plus a bit of culture and language lessons. Giving a go at humor here too. Timeline...what timeline? Just use your imagination for the timeline to make it fit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few words in Khuzdul and Sindarin that are in this chapter.  
> Kili-Khuzdul  
> *Amraliastî! - I love you  
> * Ishhin e! - Marry me  
> Tauriel -Sindarin  
> *Mellon-friend  
> You can hear Legolas say Tauriel's name in DOS just after she puts Kili in his cell and he sasses her. Legolas says her name with the proper Sindarin accent, not Westron. Because it is said so fast you might want closed caption on so you can catch it. Or here on youtube: "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: Kili and Tauriel - Aren't you going to search me?"

**Tauriel’s POV-** One of my scouts came before we finished breakfast and said that there had been a rockslide of sorts. That now the river had dammed up. The drop off to get to the river from the backup was just too steep and dangerous as there were a great deal of jagged rocks and boulders at the bottom.  We would either have to try and roll the barrels past the blockage, then, try to get them back in the water much farther down. He suggested it would be far easier at this point to have the dwarves walk.  We could make it to Lake Town a day later than we had planned but with hunting this morning it should not be a problem.  I went to the dwarves to explain what my scout had just told me.  Thorin felt that walking would be better even if it did put us behind and that they would start fishing as soon as they had helped break camp.  I said, “we should all be ready to go by noon.”

I stood near the river to help watch the dwarves while they fished. It was still close enough to the woods that I could watch for my men as well.  Kíli came over to me. “Not having any luck?” He answered with a short, “nope.”  Making a popping noise with the P in the word. He climbed up on a large rock near me. He sat quietly, looking at his hands in his lap. I wondered if he has been mocked at not being able to catch anything. I wanted to get him to talk to me.  I was not sure what to say, so I asked, “I have heard that dwarven women have beards as well, is that true?”  “Yes. It is.”  He seemed even more unhappy talking about that subject, so I profusely apologized.  He said, “it is fine, do not worry about it.”  I wanted to cheer him up. Not knowing what else to do I took a strand of my hair and made a mustache with it and asked how I looked.  He stared at me for a few seconds in disbelief. Then he cracked up at me and how silly I must look, making me laugh too.  He almost fell off the rock, he was in stitches so bad.

As I was reaching for him, he caught himself at that exact moment and jumped down right smack in front of me.  I think we were both rather stunned to be so close to one another. Neither one of us moved. We just stared at each other.  Then Kíli gently put his hands on my hips while still looking at me with a smile of wonder on his face.  I put my hands on his shoulders, I think my eyes were wide as dinner plates. He gently and slowly turned me around in a circle. I was sure I was smiling like a simpleton, my mind was blank, but my heart was pounding. I loved the feeling of the warmth of his hands touching me.  I could feel the muscles in his shoulders. I longed to touch his hair.  Out of sudden boldness, I ran my fingers through the hair at his neck.  He closed his eyes with his mouth open a little and let out a long sigh, then gently touched the hair that spilled down my back.  He whispered softly, “it feels so alive Tauriel.”  Neither one of us knew what to say after that, but we kept staring at each other. He slowly pulled me into a closer embrace, wrapping his arms around my waist, holding me against him.  I moved both hands into his hair and fisted it, causing him to softly groan.  I felt a heat coming from somewhere below my belly that spread throughout me.  Still looking into each other’s eyes, we moved our faces closer and I wondered if he was going to kiss me.  My heart was thundering in my chest as I realized I wanted him to kiss me.  We were just turning our heads when suddenly someone from the river let out a whoop that startled us and we quickly pulled away from each other.

My reaction to him so was intense. I wanted more, I wanted him. In desperation I cried out, “we will reach Laketown soon Kíli.”  “Have you given any more thought about coming with us?” I anguished, “I want to! I am just not sure though how Thorin or Legolas will feel about it.” He said, “I thought you were the captain of the guard?  Why must you have Legolas’ permission.” “He is the prince, the king’s son.   I may be captain of the guard and in some respects, am able to tell him what to do but he outranks me, and his word is the final say in what I do.”  I was not sure what else to say. I felt my eyes being to sting as they filled with tears. Kíli was at a loss for words as well.  I could tell by the look in his eyes he was feeling as I was. A desperation to not be parted. Neither one of us knew what to do though.

 Kíli stuttered, “I-I should be helping, maybe I should go?” He didn’t move. I said, “The elves should be back soon, I should help with whatever they catch.” I didn’t move either.  “Tauriel”, Kíli said in an earnest voice, after a long while. “I-I really like you.  You make me feel so alive.”  He seemed shocked that he even said that as though he has wanted to for a while, but he was scared he may have gone too far. I glanced down at my hands.  Knowing what I felt was true. Then looked up into his eyes and I said back to him, “I really like you too Kíli… a lot, and…you make me feel the same way.”

We slowly moved back to each other, standing so close I could feel the warmth radiating off him. As one, we held each other in an affectionate embrace. I held him so tight. He rested his head under my chin and I rested my chin on the top of his head.  I could feel my heart and his thundering like a stampede. I made a soft sound of happiness as we held each other. He whispered my name, “Tauriel”, as if in reverence.  I sighed, “Oh Kíli.”  It felt so good and so right to be like this with him, only I hardly knew him.  Of one thing I was sure. Somehow this dwarf was going to be a part of my life in some capacity.

Legolas called out for me. He would not be able to see us where we were behind the large rock.  Without letting go of each other, we just looked at each other.  We didn’t need words. Our eyes and smiles said it all for us. He slowly, regretfully released his hold on me.  We intertwined our fingers on both hands, simply because we didn’t want to end this special moment.  When Legolas called again for me, I sighed. “I guess I must go back, although I don’t want to.” “I don’t want you to either Tauriel.” He drew my one hand to his lips kissing the back of it and then the other.  “I will see you in a bit though.”  I turned back to camp with a quick glance over my shoulder and a huge smile for him.

I hid behind a tree watching Kíli just stand there for a while kind of like he was thinking about what we had said and done. I heard and saw him as he yelled, jumped, and pumped his fist in the air.  I giggled and felt like I was 50 years old, watching a school crush.  I leaned against the tree and held my hands to my heart as it pounded. I could not stop smiling and realized that I truly did feel so alive.

I thought to myself, I had never felt alive like this, before Kíli.  I had friends that I was fond of and them me.  Legolas loved me like a little sister, but it did not make me feel like this. Thranduil had never really shown me any love, only appreciation at being a good elfling and then later a good warrior.  I got a lump in my throat as I thought that the way Kíli was holding me was the closest thing to a hug I had gotten since my parents were alive.  And Kíli’s hands on me made my skin tingle and made me feel things I had never felt before.  Things I had heard of and longed for, to happen one day.  I smiled as I thought, that day just occurred.  He said he likes me. He kind of danced with me in a way.  I think we were going to kiss if someone had not yelled and scared us.  I wonder what it would feel like to kiss him.  My heart beat double time as I thought of the dreams I had been having of Kíli doing just that to me.  I bet his lips are really soft, but his beard is scratchy.  His hair was so soft, and his smile so happy and honest.  It really took us both by surprise today. I truly was not expecting to embrace him, but it felt natural and so good.  I felt overjoyed at that moment, recalling how he had held my hands and then kissed them!

I suddenly remembered what we were last talking about.  I then thought what am I going to do though? We are almost at Lake Town.  Then they will be on their journey!!  Oh, what have I done?  Will I ever see him again?  I have been so caught up in this I didn’t think ahead.  I want to keep seeing him, I want to get to know him better.  I adore him.  He really is so wonderful.   What am I going to do?  I wandered for a bit taking the long way back to camp to think.  The very thought of saying goodbye to him and never knowing if he lived or not brought tears to my eyes and that lump back in my throat.  They have such a dangerous journey and there are only 13 of them.  They are brave fighters for certain but if my men can come along that would be more fighters to help them.  But I don’t know if I can ask that of them.  They are all so loyal to me and Legolas.  Oh, Legolas!  What will he think if I suggest following them?  I don’t think he would be very happy if he knew how deeply I cared for Kíli.  I can’t let him know.  I will pretend like I am concerned for the whole company going into that desolate area.  I must do something!  I just can’t leave Kíli. I can’t! 

I don’t know where this friendship is taking us or if it will become more than a friendship.  I had to be honest with myself.  I wanted to be more than just friends with him. Running it through my mind again I thought, but how?  His race and mine do not get along.  If his uncle found out and Legolas found out…I think they would forbid us from being friends.  Oh, this is all so confusing.  I am an excellent warrior and captain. I can fight and kill without thinking and command whole troops with no problems. 

But I have never been in this situation before and I have no idea what I am doing.  Should I talk to Legolas first and convince him we must follow the company, then we can ask the men if they would be willing to join us.  This is going to infuriate Thranduil so much.  I only started this as a way to help them escape.  I never thought I would be doing all this and be gone so long.

I never thought I’d be falling in love with a dwarf!!

I don’t know what to do!  But wait…What if the company doesn’t want us to follow them?!?!  Oh no!  How can I convince Thorin that he needs us to come with him?  I have to think of something before we come to Lake Town.

**Kíli POV-** Everything…was about Tauriel.  I laughed to myself as I realized that there wasn’t a single thought in my head that wasn’t in some way about her.  I had no idea what had come over me. I had only just met her, and I was in love. The more I got to know her, the more I knew I could not live without her.  I would follow her anywhere and do everything in my power to protect her and cherish her.  I knew she could probably kick my butt in any kind of mock fighting, but as a dwarven male, well, it was just ingrained in me. 

I wasn’t so sure the first few times if she felt anything for me. She seemed a bit confused as if she would rather keep her distance.  But every time I talked to her she seemed calm or if I asked her to walk with me she did. I had never flirted before, but I figured if I was just myself around her, with a little extra cuteness for good measure, that might work.  It did!  I loved making her blush, she was so beautiful, and she seemed as lost and as clueless as I was with this flirting, but she had sassy comebacks that made me laugh heartily.

I think we both realized we were in uncharted territory here with the racial and cultural differences. I had noted that her men and Legolas said her name differently than she said it to me.  At first, I didn’t even realize it was her name. They were saying it so fast, it was more of a sound than an actual word. But a few times Legolas called out just the word and she would turn to him. I realized it was her name and it had to be how elves said it. She must have me saying it in Westron.

I asked her about it causing her to blushed to her roots. She told me how I said it was perfectly fine with her.  I said, “well, it’s not with me.”  The look of confusion on her face was priceless.  She simply said, “Explain, please.”  My turn to blush.  I said, “I may or may not have been listening a bit harder to the elves when they speak to you, and I may or may not have noticed that your name is being said differently.  The way the elves say it, it is much more beautiful than Westron.” I needed all the help I could get.

So, we started. She said it and it sounded like she said, tah-ow-lee-al. She was making a sound in the middle of her name that I couldn’t.  “Well”, she said, “let’s take each part one at a time. The first part is said, T with an oww sound. Not the awwr sound of Westron.”  So, I worked on that and finally got that part. The middle had us both laughing so hard at my many failed attempts to make my tongue do what she called, “trill”.  “See Kíli, in your language it is spoken much louder and I can hear it is very guttural, in the back of your throats and almost a growl.  With me, no offense, because your language is very interesting, my language is softer, more fluid, musical and at the front of the tongue.  It will simply take practice. I know you will get it. Humans learn it all the time.  I sat there with her trying not to stare at me, as I tried to concentrate on making my tongue go rrrrrrrr on the tip.  Let’s just say there was a lot of spit involved, I was getting frustrated and more than a little tired of it. She seemed so genuinely interested in helping me, I had to keep trying. She even went so far as to grab my tongue, moving it up and down to try to get it through my thick skull. That was hysterical because I think it is the way they teach the elflings and she just did it, without thinking what a dwarf might think of having his tongue grabbed out of his mouth and flapped up and down.  The look of near terror on her face once she realized what she had done (because she was holding my tongue flapping it, and I was grinning like crazy and snorting.) She stumbled over trying to apologize, but I was laughing too hard. She snarked a little, “Well, I guess at least I didn’t start a war or something.” That had me on the ground and her in tears.  I simply could not give up now!

 I was hardly paying attention when it first happened.  It was a split second of a trill.  She squealed, “You did it!”  I stuck my tongue out and looked at it cross-eyed. That made her cover her mouth with her hands and snort at me.  Ok, now that I finally knew what she was talking about, and how to do this. I was able to focus on that tip part of my tongue to get it right. It took three more tries and I was able to hold it. I was rather proud of myself.  “Now Kíli, take the T-oww sound and add the trilled R.” “Towwrrrrr?”  “Yes, yes that’s it! Ok, next the end. EE-el.”  “TowwrrrrEE-el?” “Do it again a few more times Kíli.” TowwrrrEE-el…TaurrrEE-el…Tauriel, Tauriel, Tauriel!!  Her faced just glowed and she was clapping for me. 

I felt like an idiot at first…until she hugged me!  I blurted out, “Oh, Tauriel, _‘ibinê_!”  She smiled at me and asked, “was that my name with something in dwarf?”  My face was burning, and my heart was going faster than a dozen dwarves at an anvil.  “Um, well. Yes, it was your name and some Khuzdul.”  “I think I may be getting language lessons next. Guzdull?” “Close.” If this distracted her from my little declaration of adoration so be it!  “It is a K-uh sound with an H that is more like pushing air from your lungs than an actual letter sound and the guttural U in the very back of your throat. Uh, like you were choking on a burning hot piece of potato”, I laughed. “Then the Zzz sound and the D-U-L is more like duel than dull.”  The stinker got it on the first try and she was rather smug about it too.

“Ok, so you said my name in Sindarin and then added a Khuzdul word. Was it a nice word?”  I tried to play it calm so she would not take it for more than it should mean, even though to me I wanted to shout to the world, “ _Amraliastî!  Ishhin e!”_

I said, “oh, well, it’s just a little name between friends.”  “Good friends”, she asked?  I smiled and said, “very good friends.”  “Will you tell me what it means?” Trying very hard to keep breathing and not hyperventilate at the same time, I said, “it means, ‘Tauriel, my gem’.”

I had stopped breathing.

She smiled so softly at me and took my hand. “Coming from a dwarf, I must be a very, very good friend.”  “Yes, yes, you are to me.”  “Well then, Kíli, _mellon._ You are my friend _._ I’m afraid I don’t know a word in Sindarin that means very, very, good friend.  I’ve never had one before, so you see I never learned a word for it. One would think that as long as I have been alive I would know something special to say.  You don’t have to have a special word for me Tauriel.  _Mellon_ is special enough for me.

I quickly looked around to make sure we were still not being watched.  I wanted to kiss her so bad but instead, I told her of the special meaning among dwarves that within a family or those you care very much about, you touch foreheads.  “May I do that to you?”  Her eyes were wide, and she nodded and said, “please Kíli.”

We moved closer and slowly touched.  If only she knew.  When I pulled away from her, she touched my cheek tenderly for several seconds. Her eyes full of wonder.  “Kíli. That meant so much to me.” I had a lump in my throat, so I choked out, “me too.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You will get Kili's POV of the day fishing (or not fishing as it were) and his take on the happenings. Then we are off to Lake Town. It is going to be a long walk. Good for conversation don't you think? Telling stories of growing up, laughter, misunderstandings, and confessions of the heart. There is a lot of bouncing back and forth with Kili and Tauriel's POV's but it helps you understand their cultures and mindset.

  **Kíli’s POV-** The day we fished, and her men hunted, started out as almost a nightmare.  I was never good at fishing, and everyone was teasing me as they just caught them by hand, tossing them to the shore.  I could hardly catch a fish with a worm much less, by tickling them.  So, after a particularly irritating jibe from Dwalin, I just left in a huff.  I had no idea where I was going I was just upset and wanted to get as far away as I could.

I heard something and looking up I saw Tauriel watching the dwarves, I guess from orcs.  Her bow was near her on the ground, I frowned at that.  I was just in a bad mood and she didn’t need it, but I was drawn to her.  I didn’t say anything when I clamored up a huge rock and just sat there stewing. 

I was being an immature idiot.  I knew she was trying to help but of all the things to ask me!  Beards!  Why did it always have to be beards with people?  I muttered that yes, dwarrow maids did, in fact, have beards, but I think my tone was sour. She stuttered a sincere apology. I wanted to smack my head into the rock!  I just mumbled something back to her and brooded that I was a colossal moron who was ruining a perfect chance to be alone with her in my fit of pique.

She saved the day though.  When she asked me how she looked, I had no idea what she meant until I saw her with her hair under her nose, her lip curled up, looking utterly ridiculous!  I barked out a laugh, then couldn’t stop.  It was just too funny seeing an elf making a joke and Tauriel who was always so perfect looking, now goofy looking.  I didn’t realize until the last second, I was sliding off but caught myself on a little rut in the rock and was able to land on my feet…right smack dab in front of her!  So close I could feel her warmth.

And my brain went blank.

My heart felt like a mule was kicking me in the chest the whole time I was with her. I was terrified of some cultural mess up with one little word or deed.  It never happened!  She was curious, sweet, a fierce warrior, protective, adorable, funny, terrifying if you were an orc, and simply everything I never knew I wanted.

We shared a very tender moment when I found the courage to try and kiss her as I held her close to me. I swear though if I ever find out who yelled from the river, I was going to shave their beard!  But it turned out even better, well, the kiss would have been perfect, but just tightly embracing each other. Knowing this was leading us to something. I was not sure of what yet but was excited to find out.  She was so happy when I told her I liked her and that she made me feel alive. I was a bit worried I was going too fast until she said it back to me! 

We were on the same page! 

When Legolas called for her, my heart ached. I did not want to let her go.  I knew we would be walking today, so I was already plotting on how to be alone with her. We held hands, then she was off. My mind was spinning at all we had just shared. I literally jumped in the are hollering at the joy I was feeling. Yes, I truly felt alive!

  **Tauriel’s POV-** At noon, we were ready. I had Legolas lead the group as I brought up the rear. I had several scouts out and men balanced between to cover the dwarves.  I had agreed to give them their weapons, much to Legolas’ disapproval.  But I felt it would not be fair if we were attacked again, to leave them helpless in a fight.  We would protect them as well.  We had enough food now for the rest of our trip down and for the trip back.

I still had not come up with any way to broach the subject of the elves staying with the dwarves or at least me going on with them.  It would be rather obvious if I just went that I was fond of Kíli. That would not sit well with anyone but Kíli and me.  As we moved through the woods keeping to the river, I wracked my brains and was coming up with nothing. The closer we got to Lake Town the more upset I got.  At this point, I just felt like turning the whole thing over to the Gods and begging them for help.

I think Kíli either sensed or saw my mood because he seemed to fall further and further behind until he was next to me.  He began to tell me a bit about himself and I, in turn, told him about my life.  Even though my thoughts were still troubled over what to do, it was a pleasant distraction to get to know Kíli better.

**Kíli’s POV-** I regaled her with tales of my growing up years with my brother, mother, and Uncle Thorin.  I said that I did not remember my father Víli, as he had died when I was a baby. I told her I was really a spoiled brat and with just a raised eyebrow she had me in stitches.  She said, “I hadn’t noticed.”  I gave her a smoldering look, and said, “but you wouldn’t have me any other way, would you?”  She blushed so prettily and laughed at my attempted flirting.

 She asked me what I did before I came on this adventure. I said, “basically I just trained to be a warrior.  My father had been a goldsmith, Mother has many things he made for her.  As I grew up I favored a bow over an ax.  Uncle Thorin was a bit miffed at me at first but I was clumsy, and really, downright dangerous, with an ax.  So, he made me a sword and Dwalin got me a small bow and some arrows to practice with.  I remember one time I was practicing with Fíli and I shot him in the shoulder.  He was very brave and even though I was crying a lot, he tried to get it out, so we would not have to tell anyone and get me in trouble. Uncle Thorin and Mother heard me crying and Mother very calmly removed my arrow from Fíli.  I was still little, so my tips were not very big. They patched Fíli up, I had my bow taken away from me, and had to wait on Fíli hand and foot.” 

            “But really, I didn’t mind at all. I felt so horrible about that accident.  And Fíli was so nice to me.  I think because not too much before that Uncle Thorin found Fíli throwing axes at my head.  Oh, I had small pumpkins on my head, but I think we gave him a stroke that day.  I remember him saying something about when he got to the next life he was going to strangle my father for creating such knuckleheads.  Then again, he did always tease my mother, in a playful way, about us being her spawn.  She did not like that one bit and even though he is her older brother by 14 years, she would chase him around our home with a frying pan. She didn’t care if it had food in it or not”, I told her, laughing.

 Uncle Thorin moved in with us shortly after my father died to help Mother with me and Fíli.  We were quite a handful and she was going crazy trying to raise us by herself. I don’t remember much before I was eight (abt. three human years). I remember Fíli carried me around the house a lot like I was some kind of cat and Mother worried I would never learn to walk, I laughed. 

Even though Uncle Thorin is the King and Mother a princess and a Lady, our people call her the Lady Dís, and Fíli and I are princes we seemed like a normal family.  Not that I know what a royal family is like.   Just that the other men conferred with Uncle Thorin a lot. 

Fíli and I have had several of the men in the company babysit us at one time or another to help Mother out when Uncle Thorin would go on trips.  He always came home in a dark mood. Not angry but more, melancholy, and would need some time to shake it off.  Usually, Fíli and I did that with some stupid stunt that had him pulling his hair out.  I remember Mother telling Uncle Thorin that when he and his brother, my Uncle Frerin, were our age they got into just as much trouble if not more and grandfather would have them work the bat farms in the caves in Erebor to punish them.  I am not sure it really was a punishment though.  Mother, Uncle Frerin, and Uncle Thorin all grew up in Erebor before Smaug took it over. 

 You wanted to know what our journey is?  I think I can trust you, ow, that was not necessary Tauriel, I laughed, but you mustn’t tell the others, especially the elves, what you know. We are going to kill Smaug and take back Erebor.  Uncle says it is time and Gandalf agrees with him.  So here we are off to fight a fire-breathing dragon.  We are to meet up with a burglar who will steal the jewel back that is uncle’s birthright and will call all the other clans to follow him.  Right now, only the house of Durin follows him. 

There is a great archer in Lake Town that has a black arrow. It is the only thing that can kill Smaug. So, we will find him and help him any way we can.  I don’t know all the plans yet.  Uncle worries that if we are captured then we might be tortured to tell what we know.  I have figured this out myself from conversations I have overheard.

 

**Tauriel POV-** It was funny and interesting to listen to Kíli. Finding out we had things many things in common.  I told him about my parents dying and then about growing up in the palace.  I took him quite by surprise when I told him how old I was. I told him of my duties as a captain of the royal guard and that the day I met him when I woke up that morning how I was bemoaning my life. Wishing for something new and exciting to happen. 

We both laughed at that because he told me he came with his uncle and brother to find adventure and make a name for himself.  I asked, "so, having a ‘name for yourself’  is very important amongst the dwarves?"  He said, "for the males, great deeds and daring feats gave one prestige and a bit higher ranking.  When you spoke to a male you complimented him on things that he had done, and he did the same to you, then you started the conversation.  Me being so young and having nothing to really tell about, even being the king’s nephew, still gives me a low ranking."  He said as well, "it is very important to praise a dwarf’s beard."  I laughed at that but afterward, he seemed a bit off. I asked, "did I say something to offend you?"  He said, "no, it is just that at my age I should have a beard at least as thick as Fíli’s and I have hardly anything at all, so I am particularly ugly."

 My jaw dropped, making me actually stop my horse.  He had walked on a bit, then looked for me. He noticed I had stopped, he then turned to find me. When he caught my eye, he looked so miserable that it broke my heart. He said, “What?” With a plaintive ache in his voice. I threw my arms up in the air shouting in exasperation at him, "Kíli, how in all of middle earth could you possibly even think for one tiny second that you are ugly?!  You are the most breathtakingly handsome male I had ever seen in my entire life!" 

Then I realized what I had just said! I gasped and covered my face to hide my burning blush.  He must have walked back to me, but I didn’t know it as I was mortified at what I had just said.   I meant it, it was the truth, right from my heart, but I just blurted it out like that.  He put his hand on my leg quietly asking me, "do you really think so, Tauriel?" 

He did not have the usual carefree tone to his voice, so I peeked out from my fingers, let out a huge sigh. Then lowered my hands with my face still flaming and said, "I confess Kíli, it’s true.  Every time I look at you or think of you it makes my heart race.  I have not been able to keep my eyes off of you from the moment I first saw you in the palace." 

I quietly asked him, "does it mattered what anyone else thinks if I see you as so very handsome?"  He snorted, and smiled a little then said, "no, no not really."  "Well then," I said, "you will no longer think of yourself as ugly because you are beautiful inside and out and it is why I like you so much."  "Good looks only go so far and only last so long."  He mumbled, "not if you’re an elf."  I took a swat at his head, but he ducked and grinned at me.  I said, "you know what I mean Kíli." He just kept grinning at me with so much mirth in his eyes.  I said, "you can be very exasperating do you know this?"  He said, "yes, but you still think I’m cute."  I laughed so hard I got the hiccups. The guard ahead of me looked back and I realized we had fallen a bit behind.  I said, "let’s catch up". 

We were quiet for a while as we pondered the things we had said.  We kept looking at each other and finally as we walked he took my hand kissing the back of it again like the first night I met him.  He said, “thank you Tauriel.”  “For what?”  “For being my friend.”  I smiled at him and said, “thank you for being mine.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we have Kíli’s POV of the trek to Lake Town and chatting with Tauriel. Isn’t love a splendid thing when it erases in mere moments, decades of pain from Kíli hating himself for how he looks. All because Tauriel loves him and as she said, it wasn’t just because of his good looks either.  
> A simple gesture of kindness can mean so much between friends who love each other.
> 
> Kíli REALLY wants to kill Fíli!!
> 
> We finally reach Lake Town, but not the way it was planned. Orcs, why does it always have to be orcs? (Anybody get the cross reference with a certain archeologist in the distant future?)
> 
> True confessions from the heart lead us to our HEA getting closer!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hang on tight, keep your hands and feet in the car at all times-we are going off road and leaving canon behind!  
> Actually, I kind of dragged canon kicking and screaming out back and buried it…  
> I’m playing chaotic evil with canon for the rest of the story. If I didn’t it wouldn’t be as fun!!

**Tauriel’s POV-**  It had gotten cloudy and I could smell rain coming. With the thickness of the clouds and how slow they were moving, I knew we were going to get soggy. But we were going at a good pace so when the drizzle started we were not too far from where I had planned on stopping for the night anyway.  
We had made it farther than I thought we would, so we would definitely make Lake Town the next day. We had not had any signs of orcs, and my scouts had gone pretty far out they said. I felt it was safe to set up camp in a quiet wooded area away from the water. We were all a bit wet from the drizzle and I felt that we should have a good hot dinner that night as the dwarves were not seasick due to walking and the walking had whetted their appetites quite a bit. The large dwarf ate the amount of three of his companions! I felt so bad for him, three days with little food at his size must have made anything look delicious.  
Once we set the guard and everyone was relaxing a little bit for a change, Kíli and I slipped away together. I had really wanted to talk to him about my dilemma with continuing on with their company. I had yet to come up with any ideas that would even remotely work.

**Kíli’s POV-**  I knew we would be walking today so I wanted to see if there was any chance at all of being near Tauriel. The thought of spending an entire day talking to her made me very happy. I could not believe my luck when she took rear guard!

I carefully paced myself so that I gradually fell behind and then I dawdled until she caught up to me. She did not seem at all surprised by what I did and was grinning at me. She rolled her eyes when I said fancy meeting you here.  I learned so much about her and I found myself telling her all about me. 

We had walked and talked for a long time when I brought up some dwarven customs that I know she found them to be completely odd. I guess with elves having no facial hair, and being a woman in general, she really would not understand just how important it was to dwarven males to have a really thick, long beard. It had always been a problem with me and when she laughed at the idea of males complimenting each other on their beards, it hurt, it just made me feel like I did when I heard dwarrow maids talking about mine.

I guess she realized something was wrong and asked me if she had offended me, which really,  _she_  hadn’t. It was all the memories. I just told her no and then because I felt like I could trust her I opened up and told her something I had never said to anyone else. I told her I was ugly. 

I didn’t want to see a look of pity on her face, so I didn’t look up to see her reaction.  I didn’t notice I had continued going on even though she had stopped. When I looked up she was gone. I turned around and saw her on her horse with her mouth agape just staring at me. I was feeling rather miserable. I asked her, "what?!" What she said stopped not only my heart but any feelings of misery altogether. I could not believe what she had just said but I had to ask her as she had her faced covered and her ears were as red as her hair. She had told me I was the most handsome male she had ever seen. Considering her age, that meant something to me. I walked back to where she had stopped and put my hand on her leg to let her know I was there.  I wanted to know the truth, even though I was fairly certain of the answer I would get.

It was how she said it that completely made me lose my heart to her. She made me swear to never think of myself as ugly ever again and the indignation in her voice at the thought that anyone could even think I was not as handsome as she deemed me to be, I knew I wouldn’t. All I had to do was look in her green eyes and know that the most perfect women on earth saw me as handsome and that alone was worth more than any treasure we might ever find.

When we had finished dinner that night at camp she came over and got me, asking me to walk with her. We went a little ways off away from prying ears but not too far in case of trouble. She confessed she was no closer to a solution on how to get the elves to keep going, and if they did agree, how to get Uncle Thorin to accept the help.  "Kíli, I am more than willing to follow you but Legolas would probably stop me and Thorin most likely would not allow it either.

I could tell how upset she was and I felt a kind of desperation too. I did not want to leave her. After today’s conversation, I knew I had truly fallen in love with her. I took her hand holding it gently and told her not to worry. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. It would do no good to stew on it tonight. 

Then I had an idea that made me smile at my own cleverness; if Tauriel would accept it. I took my mother’s rune stone out of my inner pocket and said to Tauriel, "I have something I wish to give you. I hope you will take it and accept my gratitude for all you have done for me and my people." I could tell I took her by complete surprise and I knew she wanted to take whatever it was. I took her hand placed the stone in her palm and closed her fingers around it. She clutched it to her chest and it looked like she was tearing up. She thanked me by giving me a tender kiss on my cheek. I wanted to jump in the air and holler. I wanted to kiss her back so bad, but, without any warning I heard Fíli clearing his throat right near us, saying it was time to get to bed. I truly loved my brother, but right at that moment, I wanted to kill him.

I reached out and took her hand again, realizing I was quite tired from not only all the walking but from such an emotional day. When we got back I let go of her hand and I told her to have sweet dreams and she said that she was sure she would. I smiled at her and said I knew I would too. Then she wished me a good night.

  
**Tauriel’s POV-**  I went to bed feeling like I was floating on air. For Kíli to give me such a precious gift as a thank you meant so much! I just could not believe he had done that. I mean this was from his mother, so I knew it meant a great deal to him. It was smooth and warm. I could not help myself, I put the stone to my lips and just closed my eyes for a moment to play in my mind the day Kíli and I had had together. It was completely impulsive of me to kiss him, but I just wanted him to know how much it meant to me. I would treasure these memories more than any I had ever had.

 

We all woke up to another soggy and gloomy morning. I knew the fair weather would not have lasted forever but I had hoped it would’ve held until we at least got to Lake Town. Such was our luck, I guess. We packed up, had a cold breakfast of leftovers, then got on our way.   
We had been on the walk for about a good three hours when we could finally see the smoke from chimneys in Lake Town. Without warning my scouts came flying back to us with orcs not far behind sending a flurry of arrows at us. My scouts yelled there were too many of them for us we got back as fast as we could, be ready. I shouted to my men, that, as soon as they could, to get the dwarves up double seated and head to Lake Town. Anyone without a dwarf was to stay with me unless they saw the company being pursued. But we needed to make a stand here and finish them off.

The dwarves were all ready for battle and I saw Kíli firing shots at the closest orcs to us with Legolas doing the same. The rest of my men spread out and were shooting arrows as well. Even though we took many of them down, they kept coming. The dwarves were locked in battle with them and holding their own when I heard one of them scream. I knew that voice too well! I could not look to see what had happened, but I heard Legolas shout I have him as I heard his horse gallop off.

My men had gone around the main party of orcs. They had cut down their flank and were coming at the main group from behind. Finding themselves surrounded they seemed to lose heart and tried to scatter. I grabbed my dagger and threw it with all I had at one and got him in the neck bringing him down but not killing him. I rushed him and drew my other dagger holding it to its throat. I looked up quickly to see what was going on and found that they had either gotten away or were in the pile of dead. But the one I had would be talking real soon. 

One of my men tied him up and I held my dagger right to its filthy skin and demanded to know if there were more of them. It laughed at me and said it did not matter. The dwarves were doomed to fail. The arrow he had struck Kíli with was a Morgul shaft, lethal poison. Kíli would be stone dead in no time. In an absolute rage and panic, I ripped its throat out with the serrated edge of my dagger and dropped the body. I yelled for my horse and that we had to catch up with the company on the double.

Leaving caution to the wind we went at a full gallop through the forest until we managed to close in on the company just before reaching Lake Town. I rushed to Legolas and Kíli. He was delirious and in so much pain. I said to Thorin, "we must find your human and get Kíli out of the rain, so I can heal him. I can do nothing out here."

Thorin and Fíli ran into the town and within a short time, Fíli was back,  leading us to where we could leave our horses. I told my men to stay with the horses and I would get word back to them as soon as I could. The stable also had an inn so I threw my money pouch to my second in command and told him to set up for the night. Fíli and Dwalin carried Kíli with his arms around their shoulders and I followed with the rest of the company behind me.

We came to some stairs and with much effort, as Kíli was writhing in pain and screaming, the men got him up to the house. The man they called Bard was there as well. I ordered him to clear off the table, which he did so. I needed althelas to neutralize this type of poison that was in Kíli’s system along with my healing magic. I had no idea where to find any and when I asked Bard where any might be found he did not recognize the Sindarin name.

I described it to him and one of Bard’s children said, “oh, you mean kingsfoil. We feed that weed to our pigs.” I just smacked myself in the forehead and groaned. I asked, “can you go find me as much as your hands can carry and bring it to me as fast as you can? This dwarf’s life depends on you.” With wide eyes, the two of them bolted out the door. 

My heart was breaking seeing Kíli like this, but I knew I could save him, I had done so for others before, as it was a favorite weapon of the orcs to use on the elves. If we got it in time and the poison had not spread too far he would be alright in a few days. I finally had to have several of the dwarves help me hold him still so that he would not spread it faster through his system.   
With what seemed like an eternity, but I was sure was not really that long, the children came back with arms full of it. If I was not so worried I would have laughed. I told them to put in on the floor and get me two buckets of clean cold water. When they brought them, I had to let go of Kíli and the children took my place. I put a handful in the first bucket and rinsed it as clean as I could, then put it in the second bucket to make sure it was as clean as possible.

Someone had already removed the arrow from Kíli’s leg. I tore his trousers open at the knee, so I could get to the wound. I crushed the althelas and held it to the wound in his leg letting the oils mingle with his blood and began the chant that would send those very oils through his system and neutralize the poison. I had no idea what my magic would do to Kíli as I had only done this on elves.

All elves carry a certain magic to different degrees within themselves as part of our immortality. It gave some gifts like mine, to heal. Using it on a dwarf would be an unknown and I wouldn’t know if it was working until he stopped thrashing and screaming. I kept repeating the chant over and over letting my magic flow through Kíli. Just when I was about to give up hope he subsided with the thrashing and was only moaning.

I told everyone to leave me with him. Thorin said, "I will leave my son Fíli here in case you need help." I thanked him but could feel his distrust in me. So, I said, "fine." He said, "we have to get boats and supplies anyway." He took Bard and the rest of the company with him leaving Fíli and the children.  
Kíli began to mumble so I knew he would be fine. If not, he would have been dead by now from the poison. I was so relieved. I just wanted to sink into a chair, but I had to keep the chant up a few more times and then dress the wound. I looked at Kíli, his eyes were a little unfocused and he was talking at me, not to me.

I took the spent herbs and the rest of the mess and gave it to the children, then asked them to help dispose of it. I told them it would not harm them, there was no poison in it. The children left, and I had completely forgotten about Fíli as I ripped the tablecloth into strips and dressed the wound. As I was tying it off I was able to understand Kíli and just looked at him as he spoke. 

He was saying, “you cannot be her… She is far away… She is far… far away from me… She walks in starlight in another world... It was just a dream… Do you think she could have loved me?”   
At first, I was not sure what to say. He seemed to think I was someone else. In my heart, I knew I had fallen in love with him. I answered him by saying, “I do.” He had fallen asleep by the time I answered him. I slowly leaned over the table and gently kissed him on the lips as if to seal my words to him. 

Fíli startled me when he came over and begged me if Kíli would live. I assured him in a few days Kíli would be fine. He would have a limp for a bit but as my magic worked through him he would not even have a scar. Fíli looked as if he could hug and kiss me but he just thanked me profusely over and over. I said, "I did what I had to, to save him.” 

I looked around the small home and spotted a single bed. “Fíli will you help me get Kíli onto the bed in the corner?” He willingly obliged me. Kíli was much heavier than he looked! He must be solid muscle. I had a greater respect for Fíli and Dwalin carrying him thrashing up the stairs.

We had Kíli on the bed when I took his boots off and realized that he was soaking wet. He would need dry clothes. “Fíli, Kíli is soaked to the bone. He needs dry clothes and to warm up!” “Don’t worry Tauriel, I will see to it as soon as the others get back, for now, I can at least get him out of his wet stuff. How long will Kíli be laid up?” I answered, “definitely one day, perhaps two. It depends on what he is like mentally when he wakes up and can answer my questions about any pain he might be in. It would help him a great deal to have crutches. I’m thinking as well if you could get ponies from the villagers, that would be the very best solution all around for everyone. Your company will be able to get to the mountain faster and Kíli will be able to give his leg as much rest as possible.”

I slumped down onto a chair as the last bit of energy I had left drained from me. With the adrenaline rush over, I realized in less than two days…Kíli would be gone from my life! I was bone weary tired and so mentally distraught. So, it came as no surprised when I just burst into tears, sobbing at the very thought of being alone again. 

I think I scared Fíli because he thought something was wrong with his brother. I took a moment to collect myself and quietly said to him, “when you leave… Kíli takes my heart and soul with him. I will be nothing without him.” Fíli was quiet for a moment. Then he asked me, “Do you really love him that much?” I looked up at him, choosing my words carefully.  
“Fíli, your brother is unlike anyone I have ever met in all the centuries I have been alive. But I was never really truly alive until Kíli became a part of my life. I would never have thought I would fall in love with a dwarf, never in a million years! And only in a few days?! This whole scenario is impossible, improbable, it’s simply not normal! But I love him, I really do! Kíli is so many things to me. He completes and compliments me. He is now a part of who I am. I would follow him anywhere if I could. I never want to be apart from him ever, but, I do not see your Uncle allowing that and though my heart is shattering, I don’t know what to do!”

Fíli came over and put his hand on my shoulder, saying “I believe you Tauriel. I will make this work for you and Kíli.” I was stunned. I said, “but why?” He chuckled a little saying, “I have never seen Kíli this happy. It has also not gone unnoticed the two of you going off every night by yourselves and spending a full day just talking. I honestly thought it no more than infatuation on Kíli’s part, but I can tell by your words that you do indeed love Kíli. Tonight has proven to me the lengths you will go to for my brother. That made up my mind more than anything else could.”  
“Will your men would follow you as well?” “I cannot be sure at this point Fíli. I must ask them, as something like this, I cannot order them. We are already in immense trouble as it is.” I laughed and said, “I only had planned on being away for a day, two at the most. Not almost a week!

Thranduil will be livid with me and Legolas. Legolas will just get a reprimand, but I feared for myself that I may be banished. My men will be punished but they are only following orders.”

I let out a long sigh, saying, “has it really only been five days? It seems like a lifetime to me and for an elf to say that it should tell you something.” He laughed too. Then told me, “Do not to worry at all. I am rather confident that I can pull this off for you and Kíli.” I thanked him and held out my hand. He took it and I clasped it with my other hand. “It is the very least I can do, for all you have done Tauriel. Not only saving Kíli’s life but all that you have done to help the company get this far. Uncle is a fair man, if not a proud one and he is now doubly beholden to you. Something like a life debt cannot be ignored. Thorin will not like it one bit to be reminded of this, but I will make sure he does.” 

Now it was my turn to want to kiss him and hug him. He saw the hope in my eyes and just smiled at me. He joked, “now we are even”, putting his other hand over mine. “Thank you, Fíli, thank you with all my heart”, I said as I smiled.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tauriel is more than ready to head out for Erebor, she just has to wait for Kili to wake.   
> When Kili finally does wake up their joy is so powerful. Some brothers have your back, others not so much.  
> “Where the heart doth lead, I must follow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a relatively short chapter, just the transition from the trials of getting to Lake Town, to the beginning of the journey to Erebor. I have some Khuzdul in here. It should be self-explanatory but just in case here you go. Nadad-big brother/ nadadith-little brother  
> I will have another chapter up tomorrow seeing as this one is so short. Thanks for hanging in with me, I know it has started off slow, but it will start to pick up from here and we are working our way to the "E" in the story.

**Tauriel’s POV-** I finally spoke with Legolas about following the company, telling him, “I must follow my heart.”  “And where does your heart say to go?”  “With Kíli and the company Legolas.”  “What is he to you Tauriel?” “He is someone I care deeply for, and that is more than my heart has felt in almost 600 years.  I love you like a brother.  Thranduil I simply owe allegiance to, but after 6 long centuries, I think I owe it to myself to do something just for me.  I should be something more than a captain of the royal guard and a killing machine.  I long for something I feel only Kíli can give me.”  “And what would that be Tauriel?”   “It would be the chance for love and a future with him.”

 

“I will go alone if I must, but I am going.  If you can find it in your heart to follow me as my brother that would mean a great deal to me.  If you do make that choice Legolas, then please ask the elves if any are willing to volunteer to follow the company.  I will no longer be their captain, but I feel with all the trouble we have been having with the orcs, more men would make for a safer journey.

  Let me know in the morning Legolas, I dare not leave Kíli alone.  I will understand whatever decision you make.”

 

* * *

 

Legolas came to me in the morning and said, “the men are loyal to you Tauriel.   They are willing to risk everything for you.  I did not tell them about your feeling for the dwarf, only that the mission of the company has become imperative and you ask for volunteers.”   “And you Legolas, what will you do?”  “I will follow as well.  I am not happy about this.  You are listening with your heart, not your head.  You will be distracted, and it will make you incompetent.”   “That is my problem then Legolas.”  “Not if your decisions jeopardize the men. Then it becomes their problem if you cannot lead them.”  “I can do both, Legolas.”   “We shall see Tauriel. But the men will be ready to leave as soon as the dwarf can travel.  Thorin and Bard have ships and supplies ready for us.”

“Kíli should awaken today or tomorrow, then we can leave.  Legolas, thank you.”  “Don't thank me, just do your job.”

 

 

**Kíli’s POV** -The pain was maddening, and I couldn’t think straight.  I saw a woman that looked to be Tauriel, but she was glowing with orbs of light all around her, so it could not be her.  Tauriel would have had to turn back by now, so she might have been in another world for all that it mattered.  Or maybe it was all a dream.  That seemed more realistic.  Tauriel was the perfect woman and I certainly would never be able to find the perfect woman to love me. I asked the woman if she thought Tauriel could have loved me but whatever she had done to me had taken away the pain and I was so tired now, so very, very tired. 

When I woke up, I was confused where I was, what I was smelling, even the clothes I was wearing.  Where was everyone?  I tried to sit up and a burning pain shot from my knee to all points of my body causing me to involuntarily cry out.  Instantly Tauriel was by my side.  She looked a little worse for wear herself as if my shout had woken her up.  She was smiling at me and asked, “other than the pain in your knee how do you feel?”  She put the back of her hand to my forehead and looked into my eyes.  I said, “I’m really confused. What is going on Tauriel? What happened to me?  Where are we?”  She pulled the covers off of me, rolled up the trouser leg and began to cut something off of my knee.  She said, “you were hit by a poison arrow two days ago. I was able to save you.  I had not expected you to sleep so long so I had begun to worried for a bit.” She asked me again how I felt, and I said, “I guess I am alright, just really sore and now that I think about it, famished.”  “Both are good signs Kíli.  Your muscles will ache a bit longer as my magic finishes purging your system of any traces of the poison, but you should be feeling better in a few more days.” 

 I asked, “you healed me?”  She smiled and nodded, glancing at me shyly.  I said, “I remembered someone who looked like you, but she had shining lights all around her, saying words I did not understand.”  “That was me Kíli.”  “Why did you glowed like that?”  She said it may have been her healing magic in me had somehow made me see the light.  She said the glow I saw was the light of immortality that elves have.  That seemed logical.  She had changed the dressing on my knee and it felt much better. She apologized for having to keep it so tight until I woke up. 

A child brought me a plate of food that smelled amazing. As I began to eat I asked her, “what’s happening?”  “Well, really all that has happened beyond the orc attack that gave you the injury was that Thorin and the company, except Fíli, who is still sleeping, had to leave and meet the burglar and the wizard on the other side of the lake.  We will meet up with them when you are ready to travel.  All is set with Bard the Bowman to be ready for us when we reached the mountain and hopefully flushed Smaug out.  He will then kill the dragon, and you will have their homeland back.”

I said, “wait!  You are coming with us Tauriel?!  You figured something out?”  The hope in my voice seemed to touch her and she had a beautiful smile for me saying, “yes, my men and I will be coming. I had asked for any volunteers saying I could not command them anymore.  They all chose to follow as far as Dale and then we will be on our own.”  She then completely shocked me when she said, “it was Fíli who persuaded Thorin that I had to come along.”  “Fíli?”  “Yes, he brought up the fact that your uncle was not only in my debt for freeing all of you from Thranduil but that I had saved your life, so there is a life debt to be paid. 

A little underhanded, but, I am so happy to be able to be with you.  You are so special to me. When I’m with you I feel something is just right. I believe in you. I like you. I don’t want to let you go Kíli.”  I grabbed her hands and held them tight then kissed them.  “Tauriel, I never want to let you go either.”

 

I finished my meal and realized I really needed to relieve myself. I was not about to ask her for help with that.  “Tauriel, would you wake Fíli for me to help me.” I think she understood.  She said, “of course, I’ll go get him for you.”  Fíli was so happy to see me awake he hugged me and I groaned. “Oh, Mahal! I am SO sorry Kíli!”  I just said, “get me to the facilities before I explode.”  He laughed at me and put my arm around his shoulder. I tenderly put my foot on the floor and slowly put weight on it.  I had to limp, but it wasn’t that bad.  When I got back to the bed he gave me a pair of crutches, “we will use these for the next couple of days.  We will be on ponies most of the day anyway so that should help you get some more rest.”  “Fee, it means so much to me and I know Tauriel as well. I just can’t thank you enough for what you did for us, so we can stay together.  I love you so much _nadad_!” I knew he was embarrassed when he mussed up my hair and said, “anything for you _nadadith_.”  I said, “I’m your only brother.”  He laughed, “yeah, that too.” I laughed with him.  I was so happy now.  Even though I knew things would be getting more difficult and dangerous, I could not help but be excited to have Tauriel going with us.

The trousers I were wearing were huge on me so Fíli went and asked a young woman he called Sigrid if she might have something smaller for me.  The young woman brought me the trousers, along with my tunic, coat, plus new stockings, and my boots.  Fíli had my gear and said, “as soon as you are ready the three of us have a boat waiting to take us to the rest of the company along with Tauriel’s men.

When we got to the docks there were actually three boats. One for Tauriel’s men, one for the horses and ponies and one for us with supplies and provisions aboard.  Tauriel said, “I am a bit nervous. I have not seen Thorin since he left to get the boats and Fíli had talked to him.  He will not be the least bit happy about this and I was hoping he would not make trouble.”  I hoped so as well.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brothers and uncles...you can't live without them because you love them so much, but there are moments you want to kill them both!  
> Fili has a little fun with Kili and Tauriel to try and give their relationship a nudge (and tease the snot out of Kili-that's what big brothers do. It's in the job description)  
> More dwarven cockblocking. Will Kili ever a get a good lip-smacking kiss?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit more Khuzdul for you: arsûn-hot male/arsûna-hot female

**Tauriel POV-** I was not fully prepared for the response to my relationship with Kíli from my men.  Thorin I was ready for, but it was disheartening that they gave me distasteful looks and I knew they were talking behind my back.  As I was no longer their “official” captain anymore, they were a bit more open about their feelings.

Every day Thorin found myriad ways to keep Kíli and me separated. All seemingly innocent but both Kíli and I knew better.  It was getting tiresome. I was growling about Thorin under my breath when Fíli had walked over after Kíli went off to help Thorin. I had not noticed Fíli until I heard him chuckling at my grousing.  "Hello, Tauriel." "Hi, Fíli." "It never ceases to amaze me at how annoying Uncle can be when he puts his mind to it."  "I think he is outdoing himself Fíli."  He chuckled again.  "I mean poor Kíli just looks so miserable with Thorin being such a pain and Kíli can’t tell him to go stuff himself."  Fíli laughed out loud at that. 

"Well, would you like to cheer him up a bit when he gets done? He looks like he is really going to need it.  What have you got in mind?  Well, you can commiserate with him and tell him that Uncle should better behave about your relationship with him.  Then you can look him in the eyes and tell him this, 'Kíli, I want you to know you are my _arsûn!'”_

I was more than a bit suspicious, even though Fíli looked totally innocent.  “What does that mean in Westron Fíli?”  “Oh, it has no direct translation,” he smoothly lied, “it is something like, you are my sunshine.  You brighten my day.  I think you saying that to him would cheer him up a bit, don’t you?”  I was still suspicious, but I knew Fíli would not have me say anything that would hurt Kíli’s feelings.  “Fine, but you stay here when I say it.”  “What you don’t trust me?” He chuckled.  “You’re brothers…you are the older brother, need I say more?”  “Ok I’ll stay here, but it really is fine.”

We sat and watched Kíli doing stupid chores for Thorin. He glared at Thorin a lot, but Thorin just ignored him.  Finally, Kíli shouted to Thorin, “I need a break!” Then without so much as a by your leave, he marched off.  He had seen us watching him, which I think made him even more embarrassed and humiliated. He did at least seem pleased Fíli was keeping me company. 

He flopped face down in the grass next to us and just grunted, “I hate my life.”  I felt so awful for him that I moved next to him and began to rub his back for him. I said, “we all know why Thorin is doing this. Perhaps we can talk to Balin and have him talk to Thorin to lay off of you.”  Kíli just made a noise. He was just so done with it all. My ministrations seemed to have him relaxing rather quickly. 

He must have heard Fíli whisper to me, and I hissed my answer back at him.  “What are you up to Fíli, I’m way too tired for shenanigans right now. He rolled over, glared at Fíli, who looked far too innocent to be innocent and at me who was still looking far to suspicions of Fíli for Fíli to be innocent.

“I may as well get it over with. What’s going on you two?”  I was blushing so bad my ears were hot when I looked him right in the eyes and said, “Kíli, I want you to know you are my _arsûn_ _!”_

His first reaction was excitement at hearing _that_ from me.  Then he realized what was going on and launched himself at Fíli. He didn’t stand a chance, Thorin had him too tired already, and he had said Fíli never lost, but it seemed he was going to teach his brother a thing or two about teasing him with my unwitting help.

It ended as I suspected. Kíli was face down in the grass with Fíli on top tickling him to death.  Kíli roared, “I give, I give!!”  Fíli got off him and was grinning.  Kíli snarked, “You are such a turd Fíli.”  “Oh, don’t be mad.”  I was nervously watching them, having never seen one of their mock battles before.  Fíli in a louder than necessary voice said to Kíli, “oh just go back to your _arsûna_ and take her for a walk and explain what it means. I’m sure it will be worth it.”  “Thanks, Fee, now I am tired, dirty, mortified and about to commit relationship suicide.” I was baffled.  “Nah,” Fíli said, “I bet you’ll get more than a few kisses out of it.”

Still blushing, I moved over and helped Kíli up. “Fíli, so help me,” I mock growled at him.  “Tauriel, trust me, you will thank me for this.” Kíli grabbed my hand and said, “let’s go before blabber mouth there puts his boot in any deeper.” We both heard Fíli laugh.

Once we were quite alone, I said, “you don’t have to say a thing to me Kíli. I am sorry I trusted Fíli, I was rather suspicious, but he said I could trust him and that it would not hurt your feeling. He said that it just meant, ‘you are my sunshine,’ so it would cheer you up from Thorin being such a bully.”  Kíli snorted. “You are my sunshine? That’s what he told you?” “Yes, now will you please tell me what I did say so I can apologize?”  Kíli grinned a little, “well, it’s not that bad really, I mean actually it is really nice hearing you say that even though you don’t know what it means.”  “Ok so come on, what did I say?”  “You said, ‘Kíli I want you to know you are my’…” “What?” ‘My…hot male.’ Kíli buried his face in his hands he was so embarrassed.  I was silent for a bit, waiting until his embarrassment passed. When he could not stand it anymore, he peeked at me. I was smiling hugely. “So then when Fíli told you to go back to your _arsûna,_ he was saying go back to your hot female?”  Kíli blushed all over again, and snorted, “yes, that’s what he said.” 

“It seems then; I guess I do owe you at least one kiss for such a compliment.”  Kíli grinned even more and said, “if that’s the case then I owe you one for your compliment.  You did mean it didn’t you?”  I giggled, “even though I didn’t know at the time, and I know now. Yes, you are and always will be my _arsûn!”_

Just as we were about to kiss, we heard someone clear their throat. “Oh, Gods not again!” Kíli whispered as he put the top of his head against my chest. I let out a long sigh of my own frustration and said, “soon Kíli, soon.” We both turned to see Bofur smiling at us. “Took me a bit to find you two but Thorin said it’s time to get going, he wants to move to a better location before dark.”

We both got up and held hands. Kíli whispered, “I don’t know who I want to strangle more, Thorin or Fíli, or Bofur!”

I said, “well if we make it to the new campsite in good time, we can try again if you’d like.” Kíli grinned, “I would very much like that, _arsûna.”_


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tauriel realizes a lot of things about her life and why she wants/needs/craves the changes Kili offers her.  
> Kili makes his move...aaaaand once again dwarves and elves are total cockblockers. I don't think Thorin needs to worry about the Pale Orc as much as he does about Kili murdering him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a long weekend here in the states so I am posting double chapters, I really want to get to the good stuff!

**Tauriel’s POV-** From where we were now it would take us a more than a few days to get to Dale. Then we would have to sit and wait for Durin’s day, as that was the only day they would be able to enter the mountain for another full year.  Needless to say, that deadline, the frequent orc attacks and just how arduous the journey was, it began taking a toll on everyone.

 It was a relief when we were able to find a good place to camp. It was cold, but we were at least out of the wind.  I was on guard duty until the meal was ready.  As I rode the perimeter, I pondered that I had never taken myself seriously.  I tried to; as elves, really do take themselves quite seriously.  We laugh, yes, but the mirth was very controlled, perhaps a small smile and a slight nod of the head to show humor.

When I was by myself I found things that made me laugh from deep in my belly until I had tears in my eyes and got the hiccups.  I had never seen even an elfling laugh with such glee. While my parents were alive; although they loved me very much, they were very strict with me to make sure I held myself with decorum and dignity. I overheard my mother telling a friend she hoped I had at least one child, if not a dozen, just like me!

But I just loved to laugh and simply could not stop.  A few decades after I got over the shock of losing my parents, I had begun to fit in more at the palace.  But my nursemaid was forever trying to get me to stop playing practical jokes on other elflings. I finally stopped the day a joke meant for a friend got Thranduil instead. 

I had found that one of the marble tiles in the hallway was a bit loose. It gave me an idea that had me laughing before I even did it. To make a long story short, I got a lesson well earned when the tile I pulled up and had made uneven, then put back, was stepped on and tripped over by Thranduil. Who unceremoniously ended up face first sprawled on the floor with a group of dignitaries watching.

  He knew of my jokes and had tolerated them as they were only with the elflings. Let’s just say he made sure I never wanted to play a practical joke again. I had to lay spraddled on the floor in front of his throne and apologize in front of the whole court after explaining what I had done. I found myself blushing from the long-remembered humiliation of that day.

When I met Kíli and saw the joy he found in life and everything around him I was fascinated, to say the least.  We seemed like kindred spirits.  The other dwarves I noted just shook their heads at him in a tolerant way when he pulled a prank or made a silly joke, like a parent just shaking their head at childish behavior.  I took it that dwarves also kept their feelings rather in check in public.  They could be very serious at times and heavens; Kíli’s uncle could blow the top off Mount Doom with his temper sometimes.  But in quiet moments he was very fond of the men, especially his nephews.  At night when our groups separated, and I would sit on the fringe with Kíli, the company could get quite boisterous with lively music and singing, dancing and a few ribald jokes that had me blushing even though I knew only a few words in Khuzdul.

 Seeing the exuberance that Kíli felt made me adore him even more and when he pushed his suit with me, I always ended up laughing or smiling like some silly girl. He was absolutely serious about winning my hand but… he was a total goof doing it. I think he did it on purpose because he loved to make me laugh and blush.  His laugh was contagious, and his free spirit called to me.

It was just the fact that we were not only of two different races but two that did not get along very well to put it mildly.  I really didn’t care, honestly; I didn’t. But as I thought about that and when I saw the looks the other elves gave me as Kíli pursued me and I didn’t rebuke him or ignore him but encouraged him, it made me angry at such prejudice. 

            I sought him out on my own. It was so special to have someone cheerful to talk to, we had such fun bantering back and forth. His innocence was endearing, and he had such a pure heart.  I didn’t know what the future of the journey was.  We had already faced so much up to this point.  After what Kíli had told me about trying to get to the dwarves’ ancestral homeland, a part of me deep inside was afraid.  I felt a sense of foreboding about all this that I could not quell.  I didn’t dwell on it much but the times we had been attacked; afterward, I found myself really questioning the sanity of all this. 

            Then again, if I had not fallen in with them, I would not have known Kíli and I could not bear that thought. A life not knowing Kíli was no life at all.  It would feel dead to me.  So, what if, when we completed this journey he had to go back to the Blue Mountains and I was forced back to Mirkwood?  Would we ever see each other again? 

No. No, I could not stand that thought. I knew I had found love, so how could I go back to just being the Captain of the guard?  I knew I couldn’t.  Well, I hadn’t got this far in my life without bending more than my fair share of rules and pushing the limits of what was considered acceptable.  I would just have to figure this out. Tonight, when we camped I would take Kíli aside and have a long talk with him.  I needed to know what his future plans were and how I played into them. 

Yes, that made me feel so much better. All the confusion just slipped away with that single thought.  I would do what was best for me, not for the elves.  It was my life, after all, I was the one living it. I did not want to think of an eternity without Kíli somehow being a part of my life.

                                                           

**Kíli’s POV** -Once we had made camp, and everyone was eating, I sought a quiet place to just look at the stars.  They never ceased to amaze me, and I could look at them for hours while thinking.  I knew that Tauriel really liked me.  I just wasn’t completely sure if she was in love with me or not. It was all so new to me. With all the times we had tried to kiss, I was going under the assumption she cared deeply for me but was it, love? The elves and the dwarves were making it very hard for me to pursue her. 

I could see that she was trying to behave like a proper elf around them, but when she would let her guard down around me and she would laugh with me (or at me) letting me know that she was not happy with this whole proper nonsense; I had hope.  I needed more time alone with her but with everyone keeping a sharp eye on us now and having to put their opinions in my ear, well... I sighed and then took a long deep breath, held it, then slowly let it out to clear my mind.  Watching my breath cloud the air, I still saw her face and all the things that endeared her to me.  When we were alone, she opened up and let me in. She was funny and sassy, she gave as good as she got, and she had such a warm heart.  She was strong and opinionated. The very fact that she was here, that we all were here, because of her defiance of the king, spoke volumes for her character.  I took another deep breath and just tried to let it clear my mind for a moment. 

Useless!  Utterly useless to even try.  I wanted to court her properly and to win her to me! I longed to put a courting braid and beads in her hair with my clasp and rune. Not the easiest of things to do in normal circumstances but add into that a racial bias, terrors attacking us left and right, a journey that would take who knows how long, not knowing what was at the end or how it would all turn out. Ugh! I loved Uncle Thorin dearly, but right now, I just wished we could go home and forget this whole thing.  Another deep breath, and another.  I was not relaxing.  I just wanted Tauriel so desperately right now! 

“Ah, there you are Kíli, I finally found you.  You disappeared before dinner and I was worried about you.  I had no idea where you were, and no one had seen you leave.  May I sit down with you?”  And just like that my living, breathing dream was by my side.  I felt all the tension leave me and a smile naturally came to my face.

“What are you doing out here by yourself?  Or should I not ask?”  “I just needed to try and clear my head and get some of my thoughts straight.  Plus, who could resist a view like this? I wish there was a fire moon tonight.  Have you ever seen one?”  “No. What is it?”  “It is a moon so red and bright it looks as if it were on fire.  I have seen one once and I will never forget it.”  “I wish I could see such a sight as that.”  “Tauriel, do you love looking at the stars and the night sky too?”  “I do. The Eldar are very close to the stars. I will have to tell you about it sometime.  Do dwarves have constellations as well?”

  “Yes, actually we do. Would you like me to show some of them to you?”  “Yes, please!”  So, I pointed out some of the stars to her. Like Durin’s Crown, a circular ring of stars that was a namesake of one of my ancestors.  She scooted over until she was touching my side, so she could follow my hand to the stars I was showing her.  It felt amazing to have her touching me again.  Even though there really were no opportunities to bathe, she smelled resinous like pine, wood smoke from the fire and faintly of flowers.  I wanted to smell her hair and touch it again.  I wanted to put my arm around her and have her rest her head on my shoulder and just relish this time alone with her. 

            Lost in thought as I was I hadn’t noticed her looking at me.  “Where did you go just now Kíli?” she asked softly. “You looked far away.”  I was at a loss to tell her my fantasizing and I must have looked like a fish out of water opening and closing my mouth because she suddenly giggled. “I think I know.”  “You do?  What do you think Tauriel?”  She took my hand and interlaced her fingers with mine and rested her head on my shoulder like she had read my mind.  “This is so nice Kíli.  No one giving us disapproving glances or rude sighs. I don’t know about you, but I am quite tired of all this fuss.”  “Tauriel, I am so tired of it I could scream.” 

            “I needed to just come out here and be alone with my thoughts, but all I kept thinking was how much I wished you were here with me.  I feel so much better now, with you near me.  You always seem to ground and center me.”  I unlaced our fingers and slowly and carefully put my arm around her waist and held her to me.  She did the same to me and took my other hand and held it in hers.  I don’t think either one of us was thinking about stars at that moment.  Her hair was warm and silky soft.  Her waist was perfect for me to wrap my arm around her.  I slowly turned my head and as carefully as I could, I buried my face in her hair and just breathed in.  It was so amazing I forgot to be quiet and just let out a gusty sigh smiling at how content I felt at that moment.  I was so happy being with her.

            She lifted her head up and looked at me.  Her eyes were so soft, and a gentle smile was on her lips.  She reached up, touched my cheek, feeling the stubble of my so-called beard, and brushed my hair away from my face.  “Kíli, I love you, you know.”  I cupped her face in my hands and drew her to me.  I could see it in her eyes, I could tell by her pulse that I felt in my hands, she wanted this kiss as much as I did. I could feel and smell her sweet breath as my lips were about to touch hers. As her eyes closed and I moved closer, a sudden ruckus started in the woods, sounding like a stampede was coming through the forest towards us. 

            We quickly got up as Legolas and Uncle Thorin stormed over to us.  Legolas took Tauriel by the arm and escorted her back to the camp while Uncle Thorin just glared at me.  I could tell he was under a full head of steam and I was in no mood for it.  Luckily, he kept in short. “You will stop your pursuit of this elf Kíli and concentrate on the task at hand.  Your distraction with her is dulling your senses and addling your brain.  I will have no more of this.  Do you understand me?”  Even though I was a dwarf grown and quite capable of making my own choices and decisions; As much as I wanted to shout Uncle Thorin down and just get my frustrations out.  I caved, and I simply bowed my head, then headed back to camp without a word.  I hoped Tauriel was not going through the same harassment as me, but there was no doubt she was.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Legolas is a dead elf, and Tauriel is going be the one to kill him (gotta love siblings)  
> Legolas was right though. Tauriel can't keep her mind on her job...and it has fatal consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, nobody dies/everybody lives!! I forgot this was such a cliffy...BUT, after this, we get to the good stuff and we can haul that big "E" out of the closet, dust it off, and well, be happy for our lovebirds. I don't want to give too much away, but I would love you to come back! I'll update after the holiday. I promise it will be well worth it! Pinky promise!

**Tauriel’s POV** \- “Tauriel,” Legolas immediately began his rant.  “I did not think you were _this_ serious about your feelings for the dwarf, but, for heaven’s sake, he IS a dwarf!  What has gotten into you?  From the moment, you set eyes on him you have been star-crossed and distracted.” 

I was livid.  No. I was near ready to murder Legolas.  He could see it in my eyes as he took a small step back from me. “ **Legolas** , **even though I have always looked upon you as a big brother, you need the snot smacked out of your head right now!** ”  **“I-was-about-to-get-my-first-kiss, LEGOLAS!!** ” I wailed “The only reason I am not killing you right this very moment, **IS IT IS TOO COLD TO BURY A BODY**!! You have no right to dictate to me how I lead my life! Do I make myself clear?!” 

            Then he hit me with a low blow. “This is not how the captain of the king’s guard behaves.  You have responsibilities now that you took when you chose to have us follow you on this quest.  You cannot be distracted by the wiles of that dwarf.  Keep your head out of the clouds and focus on what we are doing. When this is all over you can chase after any elf, or dwarf, you wish, but for now, the dwarf is an ally and we fight together.  No more of this lost puppy love fascination you have for him. Do _I_ make myself clear?”  I glared at him like a raging warg, my lungs bellowing steam (it made for a nice effect) But then his words hit me through my rage…

 The guilt of knowing I had asked the elves to follow the dwarves knowing full well we would all face the wrath of the king when we returned.  Out of loyalty to me and Legolas, they followed us.  Yes, I was responsible for them.  I felt my heart breaking at the thought of being so close to Kíli and yet a world away.  That I would have to shun him.  Tears of rage streamed down my face much to my embarrassment. 

“Tauriel,’ Legolas said in a gentler tone, “I know you have strong feelings for Kíli.  If it were another time and place, I really would not care.  But now is not the time to be courting.  We are fighting and have a difficult journey still ahead of us.  I am _so_ sorry.” He said softly.  All the life just sagged out of me and I simply slipped off to my sleeping gear, took out the talisman Kíli had given me, held it to my cheek and silently cried myself to sleep, dreaming of the kiss that was almost mine.

In the morning Thorin was haranguing Kíli for something and I could tell he was feeling humiliated and out of sorts. Then he made eye contact with me and I don’t know what came over me but on impulse, I blew him a kiss.  His jaw dropped and then he burst into a huge grin. He suddenly remembered my kiss and he grabbed it and held it to his chest and lowered his head down like he was holding something he cherished above all else.  He looked back up at me and I grinned and winked at him and his whole face lit up with joy.  I was blushing at my audacity, but it made my heart swell to see him go from so downtrodden to lighthearted that quickly just because of me showing him my affection for him.  They may be keeping us apart, but no one could stop what was growing between us.

 

After only a day it didn’t take long for a party of orcs to find us and trail us. We were able to surprise them. Quickly taking them out before they could get into any type of position, but it kept us all very alert and on edge.  At the end of the day, I was riding the perimeter of the area with the other elves who would be on guard tonight to make sure everything was okay before the final guard would be set.  I was exhausted from the hard riding that we had been doing to make up time from that last orc attack, the foul weather that had been following us, and my being emotionally involved with Kíli.  I was trying to concentrate on surveillance but Kíli was very much on my mind. Plus, how was I going to defy Legolas and the other elves, because Kíli and I still looked at each other longingly when we could and when we were sure no one was looking we would blow kisses at each other So, I knew that I could not just cut him out of my life while we were on the journey.  By forcing me to stay away from Kíli it only made me more distracted and harder to do my job.

            It caught me off guard when something spooked my horse and he bolted, unseating me.  I lost my stirrups and grabbed a handful of mane trying to regain my seat.  I was not in place when he suddenly leapt across a river.  He scrambled up the river bank and I felt myself sliding, when he got his legs I just rolled off his back into the river that was swollen with water from the heavy sleet earlier in the day. It must be a flash flood, I thought as I tried desperately to keep my head above water.  I was bashed against rocks and submerged repeatedly. My ears could only hear the roar of the water and it was so cold.  I felt my muscles cramping as I tried in vain to swim to the river bank.  As I went under one more time I was not able to reemerge. 

            I held my breath for as long as I could, but I knew there was no hope.  The last thing I remembered was of Kíli.  His way of smiling at me, that always gave me butterflies in my stomach and made my heart pound in my chest.  Such a wave of sorrow came over me as I realized just how much I truly loved him and now there was no hope.  He would be heartbroken.  It must have been the lack of air, but I suddenly saw Kíli in front of me in the water and he reached out to me, took me in his arms and kissed me…then it went black.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First comes love, then comes marriage. This is where the "E" comes in so if Explicit is not your cup of tea, then I will sum it up. 1. Kili nurses Tauriel back to health 2. they get married according to elven and dwarven custom *wink wink*   
> If you do choose to skip this chapter it may be a tad confusing with some of the details. I will try to fill those in as we go so you are not scratching your heads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For just about everyone who has consummated a relationship when both parties are virgins with very little sex ed, you can expect things to be awkward, goofy, make funny noises, bashed noses and clacking teeth. It is embarrassing and exciting and nervewracking all at once, so it doesn't go like in the romance books where everything is so perfect. If you did have THAT kind of experience I am jealous as hell. I am now convinced my wife and I should have done it the night I proposed to her. LOL, I tried to make this as realistic as possible without being tacky and romantic enough that we see just how completely in love these two are and how absolutely perfect they are for each other. Hey, the prophecy can't go wrong! It knows what it's doing.

 

  **Kíli’s POV-** I had found a small cave with a soft dirt floor to camp in. I was hoping to have a chance to dry my clothes out if I was lucky.  I had gathered as much dry wood as I could carry and soon had a nice fire going.  Setting up my pots over the fire I got out the fixings for a hot soup and was about to start unpacking my things when I heard shouts outside the cave.  I heard Legolas several times and ran to see what was going on. 

It was almost full dark, but my eyesight was good. I spotted Legolas and several other elves shouting as the rest of the company and Gandalf came to see what was wrong.  As they drew closer Legolas spurred his horse towards us, shouting to Gandalf in Sindarin. All I understood was the name, Tauriel, it was said with such urgency it was near panic.  It was then I noticed a body wrapped in a cloak in Legolas’ arms and I saw the flame red hair of Tauriel.  My heart stopped, but my feet didn’t, as I flew towards Legolas.  Gandalf called out to Legolas to head towards my cave and meet him there. Legolas passed us, racing to the cave.  I skidded to a halt, pivoted in one motion, and ran full tilt after him. Hearing Gandalf behind me. 

I got to the cave and ran in to see Legolas kneeling next to Tauriel’s motionless body.  I demanded of Legolas to know what had happened. Gandalf was already pulling out pouches from his pockets and the water I had set up was now full of fragrant herbs and other scents I did not recognize.  Legolas explained the drowning and how they had rescued Tauriel by pushing the water from her lungs and breathing air back into her.  She was weak and past hypothermic.  He begged Gandalf that he must save her by whatever means and magic he could use. 

            At that point, Gandalf moved over to us, telling Legolas he would help me with Tauriel.  Once Legolas was gone, Gandalf told me to strip Tauriel of her wet clothes and use my own body heat, as well as to stoke up the fire to bring her body temperature up or she would freeze.  He instructed me on how to steep the tea and how to give it to her.  The tea would help her lungs and throat as they were raw from the water as well as the removal of the water.  It would numb her throat enough to take the broth which would warm her up as well.  The tea would also prevent pneumonia from setting in and strengthen her lungs. 

            “The company will be staying put until she is well enough to ride again,” Gandalf decreed.  “We have pushed hard enough that we are in a suitable enough location to rest and camp for a while.  We have need to replenish our food supplies anyway.”  Gandalf put his hand on my shoulder and said, “care for her as you love her, and she will be well.” He then left me with Tauriel. In a split-second, instinct took over and I was removing her boots and clothes, then I pulled my bear fur over her and rubbed her hard to get the circulation going. I knew that would not be enough. Basic survival told me she needed my body heat to help her and only skin to skin contact would work. 

            When the tea was ready I held Tauriel in my arms.  I could hear her ragged breathing as I set the cup to her lips.  She did not respond in any way, so I had to rest her in my lap with a skin under her neck, hold her lips with one hand, carefully poured the tea in her mouth and then massaged her throat to make her swallow the tea.  She flinched in pain from me doing that but nothing else.  I slowly gave her the tea until it was gone.  Again, rubbing her hard to keep her circulation going.  I took a skin and blocked the entrance of the cave to keep out drafts, wrapped several hot stones in another skin and then moved back to Tauriel.  I put the skin with the stones around her feet as I was not tall enough to warm her whole body. I had wrapped her hair in a chamois skin to help absorb the water and dry it out.  I then stripped my clothes off and grabbing a cup of hot broth, I held her to me helping her drink the broth. 

            When I finished that I moved her to lie down on my fur and adding another fur on top. Letting out a huge sigh I tried to relax as I held her close. I had her on her side facing the fire and I was at her back giving her the maximum amount of body heat I could, while resting her head on my arm.  I held her in a chaste embrace and let my breath warm her neck.  Mahal, she was so cold, I was almost shivering holding her. Dwarves ran hotter than elves as we were from the mountains and needed to have a higher core temperature to keep warm underground.  I was worried as she was not shivering.  The body’s natural way to warm itself up.

             I just held her, talking about anything that popped into my head, while continuing to rub her arms occasionally. Within the hour she suddenly started chattering her teeth. Then her body shook violently as she shivered uncontrollably.  I got up quickly and put more wood on the fire.  With the amount of water she took in when she had drowned, along with the hypothermia, she would be dehydrated. I poured more tea and broth. Gandalf, I noticed, had left a pouch near the fire and I assumed it was for more tea, so I prepared more for later.  The liquids would help in three ways, hydrate, warm and nourish. I moved her onto my lap again and with a skin under her neck, I was able to hold her head up to give her the tea and broth.

I could feel the warmth of the fire as I again held Tauriel close. 

I tried to keep my thoughts as positive as possible and even though I was scared seeing her this way, caring for her helped me stay calm. After an hour, she settled into a restful sleep while I just held her.  By the next hour, her breathing was clear and even, she had good color to her skin, and her lips were no longer chalk white. She was a little sweaty, but I put that up to me being so close to her.  Her body temperature felt right though.  I hummed some songs I knew that were soothing. I took the skin off her hair and carefully ran my fingers through it trying to get out the odd bits of debris. I gently undid the braids in her hair to smooth it out.  It was amazing how alive it felt. 

 Tauriel was like this for three days.  I had to put a thick layer of chamois skins under her because I knew she would not be able to get up to relieve herself.  I changed them, then washed and dried them when I had to see to my own needs.  I could not help myself but admire her body as I cared for her.  She was so beautiful, it took my breath away. She was covered absolutely everywhere with freckles. There wasn’t a part of her that didn’t have some, how I longed to trace my fingers to each one. Especially cute were the ones around her nose and eyes.  With her long flowing, flame red hair, emerald green eyes, her rose and cream-colored skin, she was perfect!

Her outfit had led me to believe that she had the androgynous figure that the rest of the elves had. When I took her wet clothes off I was proven wrong, so wrong. She had this band thing around her breasts to make them flat and seem smaller. Once I figured out how to get the thing off I was, uh, surprised by the fullness of her, um, endowment. She had full hips that gave her a form I’d heard was called hourglass because of the little glass timers dwarrow dams used when cooking.  All my life I had heard that elves had no body hair…Again I was proven wrong. She did have some other than her head and, wow, it matched her hair color… She was stunning!

Gandalf checked in regularly saying she was doing just fine.  “It has taken a bit out of her, but she will be fully recovered in less than a day.” he surmised.  I was not so sure, feeling very protective, but I trusted him as he had helped her so much already.  I had tried to sleep as often as I could, but I was also very alert to any sound or change.

 It was shortly after Gandalf had left that I dozed while I lay next to her. Even though she probably hadn’t needed me there after the first night, I was not going to take any chances (at least that is what I told myself).  She was a stubborn one alright, she would make it.

Once again, my mind drifted to ruminating thoughts.  Thinking back over our journey here, I thought again about the things I knew and felt. I knew she loved me, she had said so the night when I was going to kiss her before everything got crazy.  I was so in love with her.  She had become my world, especially now with her having been, well, I didn’t want to say it. Just how bad things had been with her.  The thought of losing her tore my heart out.  I thought about how only with me did she smile and really laugh. Not just a girly giggle but a real belly laugh, with tears in her eyes. She always got the hiccups when she laughed that hard. I knew I was not as serious as the other dwarves in the company, I was just a lot more carefree and didn’t take things too seriously.  I tended to act first, think later… a lot. She was patient with me and laughed when I got a little crazy. That was one of the many reasons I loved her, she was so much like me when she let her guard down.

At night around the camp when we sat together, I would bump her with my shoulder and almost knock her off the log, she would always pretend to be offended, that made me smile thinking about it. She always shoved back, and we would get yelled at by someone who did not like being rocked on a log. That made us both giggle.  She was not aloof when the others did not see us. When we sat and talked it seemed like we had so much in common and could talk for hours. How many times on the trail here had we talked about our lives, getting to know each other?

 As we got to know each other we found that we really did have a lot of things in common in our lives. We learned a bit about each other’s customs and ways of life.  She had told me that when she was a very little girl, about 20 (4 human years), her parents had been slaughtered right in front of her eyes by orcs, as they tried to protect her.  Thranduil had a hunting party of his own out. He heard the fighting and screams and rushed to see what was happening.  After killing the orcs, they found Tauriel huddled next to her parents mangled bodies.  Thranduil took pity on her and became her guardian as she had no other family.  She said, as a lowly Sylvan elf she would have ended up in the scullery had he not taken her in.  As she got older she looked to Legolas as a big brother and was interested in the arts of weaponry and fighting.  When she reached a certain age and skill level, Legolas reported to his father, that Tauriel was exceptional and outperformed all the other men. She said she had nothing else in her life really, so she focused all her energies on being the best she could be as a guard.  It was then that Thranduil made her captain of the royal guard. I questioned her as to how old she was. I had quite the shock when I found out she was 600 years old.  I was only 77, but I didn’t know what that was in elven years and she did not know dwarven years, so we spent an afternoon figuring it out in human years.  We estimated that we were both around 25 human years.  I was never good with numbers, but I was glad to think that we were both around the same age. 

I just sighed gustily. How could she be so many things at once?  I found her so endearing. She was everything I wanted in a woman, that I had never really thought about before.  Funny, upbeat, brave, an extraordinary and excellent fighter, she had a sassy wit and of course, she was beautiful. It didn’t bother either one of us that our height was so different.  We both knew we could make it work.  An issue came up in conversation that neither one of us ever recalling a dwarf/elf pairing.  Legolas and Fíli could not either. It wasn’t a subject I really wanted to broach with any of the other company, maybe Gandalf though.

Suddenly she took a deep breath and coughed a little, I felt her forehead and she had a slight fever.  Me and my daydreams!  I had not been watching her. How long had she been this way?  I got up and made fresh tea, let it steep and gave it to her.  She was able to swallow on her own now, but she was not fully conscience either.  She murmured my name a lot but was not restless.  After she finished the tea I gave her a drink of cold water and wet some chamois cloths. Putting one on her forehead and one on the back of her neck.  With the possibility of her waking up I pulled my trousers on and took my now dry tunic, doing my very best to be careful, I put it on her.  Even though I had truly done nothing untoward in caring for her, I felt she was modest and would be more comfortable waking up clothed.

**Tauriel’s POV-** I was in and out of sleep, having strange dreams but I could not remember them.  I felt safe and warm. I was trying very hard to think what time it was and then I was trying to think what day it was.  I could not remember anything solid except being on the journey with the dwarves. I tried to wake up but just couldn’t seem to be able to. It hurt a little to breathe and I was rather sore like I had been training for too long without warming up.  Then I heard my name being called and I knew it was Kíli’s voice.  The concern in his voice was what made me finally able to open my eyes to see him.

 He looked so worried and stressed.  Kíli?  “KÍLI!!” I rasped out.  It _was_ Kíli!  I wasn’t dead! I bolted upright and grabbed him around the neck hugging him until I tipped him over on me.  I quickly kissed him saying to him, “I loved you and want to marry you and have a family with you!”  I was so elated and overcome with emotion I started to cry.  I could not speak very well quite yet, and I needed a drink as I had begun to hiccup.  Kíli was fussing and trying to gently untangle me from him. I signed that I needed a drink. He took a drinking skin and held it to my mouth, it was cold clear water not warm like you would expect, and it tasted so good.  I greedily drank as much as I could, before he took it away from me telling me, “Tauriel, stop! Too much that fast will make you sick.”

 “You have had only liquids for three days and you would probably heave if you did that.”  I was able to find my voice and though it was stronger than a whisper it was still weak.  Kíli helped me to lay down again. “Kíli, was I really was unconscious for three days?” He said, “more like three days and four nights.”  “No wonder I’m so confused.”  “I want you to rest more Tauriel.” I told him, “I’ll rest, but we need to talk; now. I have a lot to say to you before we leave this cave. I want to make sure you know everything.”

I told him that having a near-death experience can truly change a person and how they think about things.  I explained to him that as I sank in the water with the light fading, I knew I would not be making it to the surface again. It was then that I saw him in front of me so clear and I told him he kissed me. “I knew at that moment Kíli that nothing else mattered but you.”  Kíli put his hand on my cheek and stared at me for the longest time. 

Speaking extremely fast I said, “Kíli you are my life now my love you have my heart and soul I can’t wait to marry you and have a family and live happily ever after can you see that the attitudes of the dwarves and the elves has no effect on me I can think and feel clearly now I have no family amongst the elves so I would love to settle where our children can grow up with their grandmother and great uncle and with Fíli and his children will be their cousins and I just know they will all love each other and support each other and it will be so wonderful to be loved and accepted by your family and be a part of all of that and I’m babbling aren’t I oh Kíli, say something…please!”

Finally, he whispered to me, “Are you sure this is what you really want Tauriel?”  “More than anything Kíli. I want a life with you, we can go where ever we want if we are not accepted.  As long as I am with you, my heart has a home.”

 

**Kíli’s POV-** Tauriel woke up and realized where she was, and who she was with.  When she called out my name and pulled me to her; I was quite stunned. When she kissed me, I was in pure shock. When she said she wanted to marry me and have a family I was completely gobsmacked!  She was talking so fast my head was almost spinning trying to keep up with her, I don’t think she even took a breath! Then she asked me to kiss her, something I had been yearning to do since the day I met her.

 

**Tauriel’s POV-** “Please kiss me Kíli.”  He leaned slowly down to me, never taking his eyes off of mine.  As his lips touch mine, I was completely sure, with no doubts, that he was my life now.  As he deepened the kiss I responded back moaning.  The tip of his tongue touched my lips and I automatically open my mouth to him.  His tongue gently stroked mine as I caressed his, moaning into his mouth.  He inhaled deeply and groaned as I fisted his hair. He began to kiss my neck. Whispering, “you taste so sweet.” I arched my back gasping at how soft his lips were compared to how rough his beard was and that both sensations made me feel aroused.  I ran my hands across his chest and then his back feeling his hardened muscles move. I was entranced with all his body hair, I loved it. It was thick but so soft, it was different, and I loved that.

My body was reacting to his touch and my need for him grew as he kissed the hollow of my throat.  He moved along my jawline. Nipping my skin gently then softly sucking on it as he moved back to claim my mouth. I softly panted sounds of pure pleasure from what he was doing to me.

 For a male who had never had anything to do with females, he was very good at this. I could feel his need against my hip and it aroused me even more. I was surprised at the size he was.  I mean, dwarves are short, so in theory, one would think other parts of them would be, um, compact size as well.  Kíli was not compact sized!  I moved my hand to him and felt his length. He gasped at my touch and froze.  He pulled away and the look in his eyes was troubled.  I asked him, “what’s wrong?” He seems quite honestly worried about something.  He said, “I-I, don’t want to come off wrong, but I hope my size doesn’t bother you.”  I asked him, “why on earth would it bother me?”  He blurted out, “because it is not the normal size!” “Well maybe not for dwarves but seeing as you are the only dwarf and certainly the only male I will ever be intimate with it doesn’t matter.  I only have the elves to judge by.”  He raised an eyebrow and I blushed.  I confessed, “well, as the only female captain of the guard, I have accidentally seen more than I planned to on far too many occasions. Also as a healer, it was up to me to treat wounds. Even elves can be less than graceful in the heat of battle, getting themselves hurt in some unusual places so… I know that yes, you are larger and certainly much more girthy than any of the males I have seen, but that’s no cause for alarm Kíli.”

 “I’m tall, and I am sure I’ll be fine.”  He then told me how he had been teased by the other boys while growing up for his length and size because he had developed early and that his uncle had taken him aside when he had asked his mother what was wrong with him and she had gotten flustered.  His uncle said that most dwarrow maids were not that deep inside and that he would not be able to use his full length. He would always have to be extremely careful to not hurt his wife simply because of his length and as such the only way he would get full relief was by himself.  He would still be able to have a family, but sex would probably never be completely satisfying. 

Kíli told me it didn’t matter anyway. The only reason he didn’t get teased more was that he was a prince and an heir to the throne; should anything happen to Fíli.  He reminded me again of how the dwarven dams and maids laughed behind their hands that they had thicker beards than he did and had said he was just too tall.  So, he felt he would never marry, and until he met me, it didn’t matter that he was odd.

  My heart broke for him.  I gently reached up and touched his face, “Kíli, I am so glad you are not ‘a perfect fit’ for a dwarf.  Because if you had been, you might have already settled down and we never would have found each other.  We can take it slow and see how things go. I am sure you are going to be pleasantly surprised.” And secretly, I was thrilled at his size.  I pushed him away and he was genuinely confused but I pushed him on his back.  As I began to unlace his trousers he became quite unnerved to the point he tried to move my hands. “Kííí-liii! Stop that! Shoo, move your hands silly.” I playfully swatted his hands away and finished unlacing his trousers. 

Then to distract him I got up on my knees and removed his tunic from me and just knelt there in the firelight watching him as his eyes bulged out.  His hands flew to my breasts and held them, cupping them, while his thumbs felt the hardening of my nipples.  His hands were rough from the sword work and as an archer, but they felt warm and the coarseness rubbing me was wonderful. I took a deep breath and let out a long sigh of pleasure. I put my hands over his as he held my breasts, just feeling the way his hands moved as he touched me. He shyly moved his hands from my breasts to my ribs and then down to my hips in a long soft caress, I rubbed his arms up and down never taking my eyes away from his as I watched to see when he would calm down.  My touch seemed to relax him, so I gently tugged on his trousers and he readily moved his hips up in a very arousing way.  I pulled them down past his knees and he kicked them the rest of the way off.  I moved and straddled him but not touching him. Hoping that by taking the lead it would take some of the pressure off him.  “This way Kíli, I can judge better how much I can take in and when to stop if it hurts.”  When he nodded, I could see he was truly relieved at that thought.  I was glad I thought of it.  A friend of mine had told me of her first time and how painful it was even though her mate was really trying to be as gentle as possible, so I wanted to have a bit of control here for both our sakes. 

As I leaned down and kissed Kíli again, his hands roamed my body. Caressing me, he whispered how soft and smooth my skin was. I moved up a little more and his hands caressed my bottom and with a wicked grin he squeezed me and gave me a slap.  I yelped, _**“** **KÍLI** **!** **”**_  Making us both laugh and breaking the tension in the air.  “Oh, Kíli it will be fine.”  He took both my breasts in his hands, pushed them together and leaned up to put them in his mouth, he took turns sucking on one breast then on the other while rubbing the nipple on one with his thumb and flicking the other with his tongue.  I was gasping in pleasure.

While he did this, I rested myself on his hard length.  I reached down and opened myself, then ran myself up and down his length with my wet arousal. He bucked up and moaned with my breast in his mouth.  I had my head back and was trying hard not to hyperventilate. I was so ready for him. I moved my hands on either side of his head, my hair surrounded us in a veil.

 He looked around, then, smiled at me. He was gently rubbing my bottom, when I ran my finger across his rough cheek, still fascinated by his beard. I whispered, “Are you ready Kíli?” I saw again the distress in his eyes.  It softened my heart that he worried so for me.  I moved in such a way as to take him and put him right at my opening and then moved back slowly until he was halfway inside me.  I could not help but moan at how intense the pleasure of his fullness felt inside me.  I was not in any pain as I knelt up and then slowly began to slide him even deeper into me.  I alternately moved up and down every little bit or, so I took him in.  He was holding tight to my hands watching me like a hawk.   He was clearly aroused but with that distress, he was not as hard as he could be, which may have been a good thing. I kept going until I had taken in all of him. When I groaned, he tensed.  “Kíli, I have you all the way in me.”  I had to try not to chuckle, but I failed, and he grinned at me sheepishly. “How does it feel Tauriel, are you OK, does it hurt?” I said, “incredible, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Kíli, you feel so good in me.” I began to rock my hips and he matched me with his gliding thrusts. As we moved together, I felt my arousal build again. I could feel him inside me as in his more relaxed and aroused state he became completely ready. It was a kind of tight fullness that filled me.  It pinched a little at first as he became full size again but there was no real pain and it was quickly forgotten as he thrust faster, and I moved to match his speed.

 My orgasm was building so fast. I definitely was not expecting it this quickly. Moving together like that brought me closer until my body tensed as I tightened around him in me. I was rather vocal crying out when it took me. I saw only white as it rushed through my body.  I felt repeatedly, waves of the most incredible pleasure filling me with every one of Kíli’s thrusts.  I was so fulfilled and so peaceful. A part of me just wanted to collapse on Kíli, but I continued to rock my hips as he was almost at his climax. I hung my head down for a moment to catch my breath before deepening my thrust to his.  His hands were locked on my hips when he bucked up and shouted out his pleasure calling my name, then groaning. I could actually feel the heat of his release in me and that took me to another orgasm as he shuddered and filled me from his orgasm. He rutted against me as he finished, making it a pleasurable ending for both of us. 

We were both quite spent at that point, but his smile and the shine in his eyes told me all I needed to know as we caught our breath.  As I relaxed on top of him, he encircled me with his arms and kissed my neck sighing a warm breath of air into my hair, tickling my ear. He brushed the hair back behind my ear and slowly kissed and nibbled on my ear. It tickled a little at first, I’d never had anyone touch my ears like that. With his breath, I could tell he was rubbing it with his nose and lips. It became a feather-light touch, that helped me to relax.  He said, “I’ve wanted to do that since I first met you.”  I said, “do what?” “Touch your ears.” 

That made me giggle as I thought about it. I had to have the largest ears of any elf I had ever seen, so I guess that would have been a curiosity. I touched his and marveled at the size and thickness, His hair had always covered his ears, so I never realized they were larger than I thought. I slowly moved to his neck and kissed him moving closer to his ear. I did the same as he had done to me, but then I stuck my tongue in his ear! I couldn’t help myself, especially after him swatting my bottom. I laughed so hard when he yelled, “Taurieee-el, Ewww, yuck!” scrubbing his finger in his ear to get the feeling out.  We both laughed as I nuzzled into his neck and enjoyed the scruffiness of his face on my nose and cheek.

When I was done, I rolled us onto our sides but leaving him in me.  I relished the feeling of us being one.  He nestled his head in my neck now and nuzzled me as he sighed in contentment.  I kissed the top of his head and played with his hair. He slowly moved and pulled out of me, wrapped his leg over my hip and scooted up to my face to kiss me.

 “Tauriel, that was better than anything I have fantasized about you since I met you,” he said. “Oh really?” I questioned.  “When we have built up our energy I’d love to hear more about these fantasies.”  He chuckled, kissed me again to shut me up, and I had no problem with that.  I was quite spent, and I told him so.  “Wore you out did I Tauriel?” He sounded rather pleased with himself, as he should be.  I smiled and nodded, saying, “yes you did my love,” as I was trying to keep my eyes open. I explained by saying, “I just want to fall into the afterglow and sleep with you wrapped around me.”

 “This will probably be our only chance to be so intimate for the rest of our journey. We have a ways until dawn, so I want to just rest a bit and then have you on top.  I know I just barely came back from the dead with my drowning but this, Kíli, this lovemaking, has filled me with so much strength, even if I did just use most of it up,” I laughed. 

“I want to try you behind me, and I want to put you in my mouth, and I want you to taste me and,” …. he put his finger on my lips chuckling, “You are getting me aroused again and I am too tired to do anything about it, so let’s sleep for a bit shall we.” When we touched foreheads I told him, “I love you.”  He said, “I will never tire of hearing you say that to me.” He smiled softly, and lowered his eyes for a moment when he looked at me again, he said, “ _menu tessu. Amralizi_ , _amrâlimê_.”  “What does that mean Kíli?” He tenderly whispered, “you are my everything. I love you, my beloved.” Then he kissed me.  I choked up and tears filled my eyes as I just basked in the love this dwarf had for me.  We held each other and quickly fell asleep in each other’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the first part of this book has been a tad dry and not full of the realism and humor I usually do. I am trying to set things up for the next 6 books. I actually spent 24 hours correcting the timeline when in book 4 I realized I goofed in book 1 (but it took me a full day, about 6 pads of sticky notes, math after midnight and a lot of swearing at Peter Jackson) I get into elven physiology and some of Tolkien's customs. This chapter had hours of research and I mean, I know more about Middle Earth than my wife does and she is a dyed in the wool Tolkienite. I have even begun to learn Khuzdul for this story.  
>  I wrote the recovery scene almost two years ago. As I was rereading it to post it, it dawned on me that I had only gone on knowledge gleaned from years of Bear Grylls, Survivorman, MASH, The A-Team and a host of other shows that involved hypothermia. I shot over to Google and began. Wonder of wonders...I got everything right LOL! My Swiss cheese memory had retained enough that I wrote the whole nursing back to health scene with just the stuff in my gray matter! Who needs college when you have Bear Grylls? haha.   
> I hope it was all worth it and you liked it.   
> Things should pick up from here and book 2 is where all the fun of having ditched canon by the wayside comes in. Stick with me.  
> FYI-I am doing this without an editor or a BETA so be merciful on me.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I MAY HAVE KILLED CANON...BUT I AM BRINGING CLICHE ALONG FOR THE RIDE!! You have been warned.   
> Now, laugh dammit!   
> Big news. Elven & Dwarven physiology (which we will get more into later-any questions just ask away) A lot of research, some magic and I killed canon!  
> The more the merrier, right...right? Well 6 is a good round number and keeps to my time line. We are setting up base information for book 2 while filling in the end of the trip as we get closer to the Battle of the Five Armies (and our HEA)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My wife groaned at all the cliches in this chapter. I threw my scrunchie at her and told her to put a pipe in it. I LOVE CLICHE. If cliche were not popular, then WHY would people still be using it and still be laughing at it?!!?! I ask you! Maybe I watched too much I Love Lucy growing up, but loony expectant dads and eye rolling expectant moms always crack me up. My own pregnancy was so full of cliches that I included dozens of them in part 2 of Starlight and firemoon. Real life experience put into Tauriel and Kili's life. So Canon is dead, gone, and buried, but cliche lives on.

**Tauriel’s POV-** Something woke me up out of a sound sleep.  I lay there with only the light from the fire, trying to sense anything. I felt a soft kind of vibration coming from deep within me letting me know the egg was fertilized now. Huh, I had always wondered what it would feel like compared to how it was explained to me. Honestly, though, I was too spent to really think about it. As I drifted back off into sleep a thought came to my mind that instantly re-awoke me.  Just- how- many- eggs- had -I- released?!  I shook my head. I figured I’d find out soon enough when they were fertilized. Then we would just take it from there.

When I immediately felt another vibration, I gasped. Then my eyes widened as I felt another one fertilize, and then another, and then another, and another, until I had to put my hands over my mouth to keep from laughing too loud.  What had I done?! Oh goodness! When I was sure all life had started in me I stopped four of them…and let two continue to grow.  Six lives now grew in me!  Oh goodness, six!  When I did things, my mother had always said I never went halfway, I always went in head first the whole way.  I had barely registered these facts when I felt Kíli move. He must have heard me giggle, because he sleepily asked me, “Are you alright, Tauriel?”

 I could hear the concern in his voice as well. I thought to myself in a bit of a panic, what am I going to tell him? Oh gods, ha, uh.  I didn’t think, ‘Hi, love I know we’ve only been a couple for a few hours but I have some exciting news,’ would go over well. Nor would, ‘Congratulations Kili you’ll be happy to know that you are indeed a very vigorous virile male.’ I was a bit frazzled, so I ended up just smiling like a fool, giggling again and saying, “Uh, yes Kíli, uh, heh, about that…we’re, uh, all just…fine.”  He raised an eyebrow and tilted his head in question, then stretching each word out slowly he asked me, “Tauriel… what’s wrong?” I just shook my head back and forth quickly while shrugging helplessly.  I am not one who likes to be taken by surprise, so I was not sure how he would react to the news.

 I smiled at him and said the first thing that came to mind, “Surprise!” Aagah! That is not what I wanted to say to him!  He said, “what? What’s a surprise?”  I had to calm down or he was going to have a fit. I gently touched his face. I spoke softly. I starting out slowly… but rushed the ending by saying, “Kíli- you- are -goingtobeafather!”  It took a moment for that to sink in.  I was holding my breath while my heart was beating between my tonsils. Then before I knew it he had me off the ground. I was squealing and laughing while he was twirling me in a circle, whooping, laughing, and hugging me. 

“Really?!” He shouted.  **“I’M REALLY GOING TO BE A FATHER?!”**   I nodded excitedly and said, “actually, you are going to be a father six times over!”  Good thing I had my footing because he almost dropped me in surprise.  “S-s-s-six Tauriel?  You are pregnant with, six, babies right now?”

“Calm down Kíli it’s going to be alright.” No need for both of us to be having fits. I explained the delayed implantation.  “Elven females don’t experience menses. We hold our eggs until we were ready to have children, then we release them to get pregnant. To explain this would take far too long and probably just confuse you. It all boils down to, we are able to hold the fertilized egg in stasis for as long as we need before letting it grow. Perhaps in my aroused state and this all being new to me, I had not really been able to think, so nature must have taken over and instead of me just releasing one, your, uh, sexual prowess left me a little awe-struck and, well... here we are!”

He looked at me like I was crazy.

I just sighed.

“I am only allowing two to grow right now, then in a few years I’ll release two more, and then after that two more. From there we can decide if we want to populate the entire world with half-elf, half-dwarf children.”  He laughed at me and just shook his head.  “You are a mystery to me woman and I look forward to the many years to solve you.”  He held me close and said, “we are going to be…hey, do you want them to call us Mamma and Pappa in Sindarin or Khuzdul?” “Um, I think Westron might be best, as everyone understands that, and it will be less confusing for the children if we ever go to Lothlórien or Imladris.”  “If that’s what you what you want _‘ibinê_ , than that, is what we shall do.” “Oh, Kíli, I love you so much!”

 His hand caressed, and then held, my belly where life grew inside me.  “Kíli, are you truly happy about this?”  “Honestly Tauriel this news both thrills and worries me.”  “Kíli, it is probably futile to even say this, but for expectant mothers everywhere I feel I must…I. Am. Going. To. Be. Fine. You are not to worry about my safety. Does that make you feel any better?”  “No.” He deadpanned. “Well, I had to try at any rate,” I laughed. “Really at this stage of the babies development, I do not see it affecting my fighting or traveling.”

* * *

 

**Kíli’s POV-** She had only asked me to kiss her, which I was more than thrilled to do, but as the kissing became more passionate and her reactions to it more intense, I found myself struggling to hold back. 

The feeling of her hands exploring me, caressing the skin of my chest and back, had me in dire need of her. I wanted to explore her body as she was mine.  I wanted to touch and taste every part of her. Every time she fisted my hair and moaned, a fire flashed through me. It lit a lust in me the likes of which I had never known was even possible to feel. Threatening to overcome me. I didn’t know how to stop, nor did I want to, but I would have to soon if I was just going to keep to kissing her only.  Then I felt her stroke me and I kind of panicked as memories of my youth flooded back into my mind. I should have known she would not be put off by my reaction.  She actually still wanted me, and she wanted me to make love to her as well.

 

Our lovemaking was beyond belief! How she handled my nerves and my stupidity at thinking I was too big for her were extraordinary. My orgasm was so powerful making my love for her overwhelming; but in a wonderful way. We were naturally made for each other.  Our love was honest and pure.  Her body was astonishing and the way she put so much heart and passion into our lovemaking was wondrous.  I could only marvel at her beauty, both inside and out.  I explained this to her and the look in her eyes made me love her all the more.  We were both quite worn-out and I just wanted to hold her and strengthen the bond we had just started.  We snuggled close and sunk into a deep sleep.

I wasn’t fully asleep when I heard her giggling and wondered what she was doing up already.  I opened my eyes to look at her and she was staring at the ceiling of the cave with the biggest grin on her face.  When I questioned her, she said the last thing I expected. It took her a while to get to the point, but once it sunk in what she had said, I became a little bit over enthusiastic! I had picked her up so fast she squealed and then it dawned on me I needed to treat her as carefully as I could. I held her tight as I swung her and kissed her I was just so surprised.  Then… I was quite concerned. The paternal dwarf instincts kicked in and I realized she might have a problem with that. I told her I might just start to be a little bit overprotective.  When she told me not to worry, I wanted to smack my head. I just thought to myself, ‘Why does every female think she has God-like powers when she is pregnant?  They are fragile and delicate in this state…I don’t think a husband yet has gotten that through a mother to be’s thick skull that they need to be kept safe, protected and rest…a lot!’ I said instead, (because I wanted to continue living) “right now Tauriel, I just want to take you back home and never travel again.  I just want to raise our family in peace and I would be more than content with that.  But we still have a long way to go.” 

* * *

 

**Tauriel’s POV-** “How long are dwarven women pregnant?”  “Oh, only four years.”  At first, I was speechless.  Had I heard him, right?  “Four… _years_?!” I asked incredulously. “I thought a year was a long time with the elves. Kíli, with these being hybrid children, I am not certain, but I would think that it would be a blending of the two times, don’t you think?”  “I’m not sure. It is not something that males talk about, especially to males as young as I am.  Most dwarrow dams don’t have their first child until they are around one hundred. How old are elves when they have their first child?” I said, “usually around a thousand years, so I am quite young to be having children, and so many so close together.  Most elves only have one or two children and space them out about a thousand years.”  “Dwarrow dams usually only have one or two children as well,” He said.

 “Tauriel I honestly think we are on our own with this. We will just have to take it as it comes and gage things when we feel they are right.”  I agreed with him saying, “most likely seeing as I am having twins and half-elf at that, I may go into labor earlier than if I was only carrying one.”  “I had not considered that.” I said, “I am also concerned about the size of the babies too, Kíli.  Dwarves are heavy boned, broad-chested and have wider shoulders than elves. I guess it is a good thing I am not willowy like a typical elven woman is.  I’ve always had wider hips than any other woman I know.  I guess like you with your concerns over size and how it was a point of contention in your life and interactions, my figure is not typical of an elf.”  I shrugged my shoulders as I thought about it and said, “no male was ever interested in me romantically because elves join for life and have no other. Being a captain of the guard, men did not see me as a mate but more an equal to them.  I am a bit of an oddity among my own people as well.”

“I will quote you my dear wife, ‘It’s a good thing you are not a perfect she-elf or else we never would have met.’ She gave me a silly look, but I continued, “Tauriel, you have the most lovely, beautiful and dare I say sexy body, I have ever been privileged to have and to hold (among other things).” I swatted him a good one on the arm and laughed at him. “Oh, Kili. Life will never be dull with you.”

He chuckled at me and said, “with the pregnancy of a dwarf being four years there are so few children. That is why Dwarrow dams are closely guarded and kept safe during their pregnancy.  They are not allowed to leave their husband’s hall during their pregnancy it is so important.”  He said, “that is why I feel so overprotective of you.  I know you will be able to hold your own, and I saw that eyebrow shoot up Tauriel, I would never do that to you my love, but can I get a few forgiveness’s right now in case I forget and do something rather, ‘dwarvish-y’, to you?”  He looked rather nervous and gave a weak laugh. I asked, “Are you going to be going to be ‘one of those fathers’?” 

Shaking my head at his cuteness, I smiled, and kissed him soundly. Telling him, “do whatever you need to do. I am a healer, so I know how the body works and I should be able to feel the changes in my body as I get further along.  I am strong from my years as captain of the guard and elves never get sick, so I am not worried about that.”

  **Kíli’s POV-** We laid back down as she was getting cold standing there naked, even with me holding her.  I spooned against her back. She said, “this is so nice.” “I have ulterior motives my dear wife.”  She laughed, “Don’t all males?” I snorted at her goofy joke. “And may I ask just what these ulterior motives are my darling husband?”  I said, “one, to keep you warm while you face the fire. Two, I love having you in my arms.  I honestly wasn’t positive we would end up like this, and three, so I can have my hand on your belly watching out for our babies.” 

A thought came to her as we spooned, “Kíli, what do dwarves feel about premarital sex?”  “I’ve never heard of dwarves having any. Marriage and family are such a serious and sacred thing.” Quietly she said, “Kíli, I don’t want to frighten you, but with how everything happened so fast and all the strife we have had with the company and the elves, that we really have not had time to talk about matters like this. I want you to know that I am not holding you to anything.” 

“Simply because this is so unprecedented the two of us together, but in the custom of the elves it is the consummating of a relationship and in speaking the name of Eru that it is all you need to be…married…” She squeaked the last word out and just waited.  I could tell she was upset and frustrated with herself, but she then quickly said, “I had nearly died and was so distraught over losing you and then to wake to you right there before me, I just went on sheer emotion and no logic.  So, I had not had adequate time to think things through. I am so sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of the elven and dwarven physiology came from Tolkien but the delayed implantation was my idea. I could not imagine having thousands of years of periods! For the dwarves, I make their menstruation only every six months. Hobbits and Humans have to suffer, "The woman's curse", but they have shorter lifespans and Hobbits mature much older than humans so the poor humans have a crappy life. I need to research their God and have the humans give him a roast! I know when I cross to the other side my God is going to be hiding because I have a lot of questions and I have a German/Irish temper. Also, this is the first mention of igniting a dwarven males lust. This will come up quite a bit in the books 4 and 5 as well as many of the novellas about the dwelves. Dwarves had no idea about igniting the males lust. They either consummated the relationship as part of the marriage contract in which he would have felt lust and then not seen his bride to be for a year or consummated it on the first night together, again not realizing it was igniting their lust. It just seems natural.   
> Introduce a new race/races and suddenly it is discovered that dwarven males have this lust that is very sensitive to females. Most likely why the females never left their father's halls until the wed then never left their husband's halls. All this will change when Dis comes back into power in book 4 and the prophecy rocks not only the dwarves world but all of middle earth! So hang in there with me it is going to get sooo much better!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some lessons in languages, cultures, and customs and all the ways silly misunderstandings can be laughed at. Lots of post-coital bliss and pillow talk, way more goofiness than should be allowed. More, uh, renewing their vows…lastly, how will the elves and dwarves handle the news of our newlyweds, especially Thorin? (sneaking in a bit of foreshadowing here too for book 4)  
> Khuzdul/ Amralizu- I need you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any of the customs, culture, or language is confusing I will do my best to un-confuse you…just ask.  
> I have a Pinterest account now for my stories here on AO3. I am filling the boards up from my other account I started years ago. I should have a really good amount of pictures to go with each chapter really soon.

**Tauriel’s POV-** He just chuckled at my remorse. Gently squeezed and caressed my breast telling me to relax.  He kissed my cheek and I rolled on my back to look at him.  He said, “I have no ring to give you.” I quickly said, “the rune stone you gave me is so very precious that it could count.” “Alright,” he said, “so, I have given a token of my love for you, I have given you my heart, and my soul to have for as long as we both shall live.  If you will have me in the name of Eru, I will, with much joy and satisfaction, be your husband.” 

Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my cheeks as I held his hand twining our fingers together.  “Kíli; with all that I am, I will be your wife.  You are my beloved and I will have no other.  I think I have known this from that first moment I saw you at the palace.  I wanted no one but you to be with forever.” 

  He raised himself up on one elbow and in his unique way, he cupped my face and gently kissed me. “ _Amrâlimê_ , always will I be yours.”  He smiled saying, “I fell in love with you the moment I saw you when you sat outside my cell in Mirkwood.  You just stared at me and suddenly, my heart was yours, that simple.”  I was so happy I started crying and my nose started to run. I laughed, saying that I was so unromantic.  His hearty laugh made me laugh again as he took a cloth and wiped my nose then he let me blow in it.  “Hmm,” he said. “I’m going to have to wash that now.” That made me really start to laugh.  He said that was one of many things that he absolutely adored about me.  That I laughed with no reservations.

 “Kíli, what is dwarven courting and marriage like?  What will your mother think of me?  I already know how Thorin feels about me.”  He said, “Thorin as a male and a warrior was betrayed by the elves.  Dwarves all around are not too keen on the elves for that reason, but I know my mother will be so over the moon with you because ‘her baby’ is so happy, that she will be happy as well.  And as for dwarven relationships and marriage, well one thing we have in common is that consummating the relationship is, in fact, the act of marriage.  There is much more that my mother will explain to you I’m sure, and I know as sure as the sun will rise Uncle Thorin will hold me to every tiny detail of dwarven custom.”

 “So… I guess… as of this moment, we are indeed officially husband and wife, _amrâlimê_.”  He kissed me again and held me close.  We just looked at each other for a long while, letting the thought sink in.  I finally sighed. When he put his forehead to mine he said, “yeah, I know what you mean,” and I smiled.

Now that I understood the depth of the word, _amrâlimê_ , it meant a great deal to me to hear him call me this. 

**********************

“Kíli, what is my last name now?  I am no longer Tauriel of Mirkwood.”  “Well, seeing as I am of the line of Durin, I suppose that you could say, ‘Tauriel Durin’, but dwarves really don’t use last names, they more said their name and then say, ‘of the house of Durin’, or whatever house they belonged to.  I’m a direct descendant of Durin the Deathless, the first father of my line, he was _of the_ _line_ of Durin, not _of the_ _house_ of Durin. Being of the line means direct decadency, whereas of the house means you are related but not a direct descendant. It is said that Durin the deathless lived over 3,000 years and then was reincarnated 6 more times, once for each house. The Durins, original through 6 th, were all alphas but once Durin the 6th died that alpha gene was no longer showing in the males.  It is one of those mysteries of the dwarves,” he laughed.

I asked him, “should we tell the others or keep it to ourselves for now.”  He said, “as much as I would prefer to keep it to ourselves simply because of the guff the elves and dwarves have been giving us.  As well as what we experienced tonight is so special and sacred to me, I don’t want it tarnished with all the arguments and fighting it will be causing. I wish we could stay here for a while longer and just be alone.  But Gandalf had figured three or four days would be enough.  I could try to buy us more time, but it would probably not work as the company would either see you as too weak or just leave without you and I will not leave you.  So as unpleasant as it will be, we will have to announce our marriage in the morning to the company.  Knowing both sides will take it seriously and no longer try to keep us apart, it is in fact in our favor.”  I agreed with his desire to stay alone longer but also with his logic. Plus, it would be odd not sleeping next to him if we did not tell the company.

He could tell I was unhappy.  So, in his Kíli way, he softly kissed me, then started to touch my face and moved his fingertips slowly down my jaw to my neck.  Then ever so slowly he traced his finger down to my breast and began to gently play with my nipple, all the while kissing me on my lips and neck.  His kisses ranged from gentle and loving to lusty desire.  Between his kisses and his touch, my passion was once again lit.  He cupped my breast and massaged it, gently caressing, and squeezing it.  Then in the most tortuously slow fashion, he moved from my breast to trace down to my belly, where he rested his hand over our babies.  He whispered sweetly in my ear of his love and desire for me, then he snickered as he had a thought, “Tauriel, one day when we have nothing else to do, I am going to kiss every freckle on your body…twice! They are so beautiful and exotic on you.” I laughed and said, “I think it will take you more than a day, I must have hundreds of them!” “Then I will count each one as well for you, just so we know for sure.  I may mess up and have to keep restarting though.” I barked out a laugh and he chuckled too. “Oh, _meleth nín_ , I think we will need a week then in that case! Now stop teasing me! _Amralizu!_ ”

 I had my one hand in his hair and the other stroking him, making him groan as much as he was making me sigh with desire.  His finger brushed against the hair between my legs and I bent my one leg up and opened to him letting him slip his fingers into me.  I gasped as he rubbed me and pulled his fingers in and out, then began to curl them inside me.  Just when I thought I couldn’t stand it anymore he found that special spot in me, causing me to arch into an orgasm and scream his name again. When I came down from that I begged him to made love to me.

He moved between my legs and held my hands down as he entered me.  This time he was completely relaxed and very ready, so the pleasure was immediate.  I closed my eyes and arched my back. Pushing against his hands helped me feel the waves of pleasure from his thrusts stronger as they went through me.  He softly whispered my name again and again as he began to thrust faster.  I wrapped my legs around his hips, so he could go deeper and cried out as the pleasure built in me.  He encouraged me with his seductive words and I cried out his name as I began to reach my climax.  Gasping from the passion that had me on the brink of release I finally surrendered to it as Kíli’s sounds from his own building need matched mine and I let the orgasm flood over me.  I was still lost in the well of my pleasure when Kíli cried out my name,  thrusting deep and hard as he reached his release as well. He began to rut against me as his orgasm played out until finally, we were both still as we came down from the heights of ecstasy.

 He nearly collapsed on me as both of us felt drained from the sheer magnitude of our lovemaking.  As he rested on me I could feel his heart pounding.  I still had my legs wrapped around him and I wrapped my arms around him in a cocoon.  He softly kissed my shoulder and neck, then one last kiss on my lips as he rolled off of me. Immediately pulling me to him.  Neither one of us had words, but in our hearts, we knew what the other was thinking. 

He cradled me against him and I snuggled against his chest, running my fingers through his chest hair. Then I got a crazy idea and began to nuzzle my face in his chest hair. “Tauriel? What on earth..?”  I hummed in delight as I continued to nuzzle him saying, “I just can’t get over how much I love a hairy male.” I had him laughing so hard from that it set me off and I ended up with the hiccups again.  He was gasping for air as he lovingly scolded me, “you need to control your urges woman. If you keep doing things like that to me we’ll never make it to the mountain in time.” “I can’t help myself Kíli. To think of all the places, you have hair on your body, fascinates me. I never would have guessed you’d have hair in your underarms, on your back and your bottom. You want to spend time with my freckles. Well, I want to spend time with this glorious hairy body of yours. By the way, why is your body hair so soft but your facial hair so rough?”  He was blushing so bad. I just grinned at him as he pulled me back down. “We can talk about all that later love,” he said. I calmed down as I once again ran my fingers through his hair.

 As I began to fall asleep he started humming an unknown tune that relaxed me, I asked him what it was.  He said, “it’s an old tune called The Misty Mountain song.”  It was low and deep, ‘he has such a beautiful voice’, I thought as the vibrations it made in his chest lulled me to sleep.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

**Kíli’s POV-** I awoke as first light began to show through the cave entrance. Tauriel was still fast asleep in my arms.  It hit me again that she was my wife now. I just burst with joy, plus the thought too that she was carrying our children.  I would have laughed in the face of anyone if they had told me that I would find a wife and become a father on this journey, and to one so perfect as Tauriel just made it all that much sweeter. I let out a sigh of contentment and just relaxed for a bit in the warm glow of that thought.  I could just picture in my mind a home full of laughing children running around and playing, with Tauriel teaching them elven and dwarven ways.  I knew my mother would be overjoyed to help us.  I saw myself being like my father and being a goldsmith and gem master, so I could stay near home to help as well.  Celebrating holidays with family, evening meals and vacations with our brood.  I really felt that we would have more than six children.  I had honestly never thought about children before.  I didn’t know what Tauriel had thought about them before becoming pregnant, but I knew she was now thrilled.

Then reality reared its ugly head. I knew I would have to wake Tauriel, we would soon be telling the others, and then on to whatever befell us with the rest of this journey.  Now I was quite anxious for it to be over, so I could get us home and settled. We would have to live with my mother until I could build a home of our own.  Then again, if everything worked according to Uncle Thorin’s plan we would be reclaiming Erebor as our home once more.  If we could get all the clans to help we would have everything righted in no time at all.  So much to think about.

 I kissed Tauriel on the forehead and gently touched her hair and face.  My heart was so full of love for this woman. My wife.

 My touch roused her, and she made some rather cute noises as she nuzzled her nose into my neck.  She inhaled deeply and then I felt her warm breath on my skin.  I whispered, “my love, it is time to wake.”  I grinned when she groaned and said, “uhh uhh!” Then nestled even closer to me.  Oh, how I wish we could stay, but, I knew better.  “Come now darling, wake up.”  She huffed and mumbled, “do I have to?”  I laughed at how petulant she sounded.  “Now Tauriel don’t tell me you are not a morning person.” She harrumphed and said, “only when I want to spend forever in bed with you.”  She then yawned and stretched in a most seductive way that did nothing to help my resolve to leave or my morning condition.  I could worship her body forever and still not have enough of her.  “Kíli, where is your tunic?  I really need to go.” I gave her my tunic and got up myself, thinking I had the same need.

 Helping her had made me forget what I looked like when I woke in the morning and I was surprised by Tauriel’s look and that she had not put the tunic on yet.  She quipped, “my, aren’t we happy this morning?”  I looked where she was looking and laughed.  I said, “I wake up like this every morning darling.”  With a wicked grin, she scuttled over on her knees and kissed me there.  My knees nearly collapsed from the sensation that shot through me as she did that. I grabbed her shoulder to steady myself and she proceeded to take me in her mouth.  “T-T-Tauriel, are you sure?”  My voice actually cracked and squeaked when I said that. 

She hummed an uhm hmm sound and I just dropped my head and stood right in front of her as she began to suck on me.  She moved her tongue around my tip making me breathe faster. My hips thrust forward of their own accord.  I groaned as she moved up and down, going faster. She rolled her tongue around the exposed part of me after she pulled my skin down. I tried not to grab her, but I was squeezing her shoulders to keep from thrusting too hard.  When I felt myself almost at the point of release, I stuttered to her I was ready, and she should pull away, but she only went faster.  I cried out and threw my head back as I felt my release happen. I was lost in the pleasure for a moment.  I couldn’t move.  Slowly I came back and looked down at a very smug woman.  She grinned as she slyly asked, “Did you enjoyed yourself?” As I was still trying to breathe normally, talking was kind of out of the question.  I just nodded.  She put her face against my stomach and wrapped her arms around me as I began to recover.  “My gods woman,” I whispered, “I think next time you should warn me,” I weakly laughed.  She giggled and said, “now where would the fun be in that?”  “You are a wicked woman; do you know this Tauriel?”  She looked up at me with a self-satisfied smirk and said, “one does one’s best.”   I shook my head and said, “Nope, we are never going to make it to the mountain!” We both laughed and then she sighed and said, “I guess we should hurry up and quit playing around.”  She had such a cute pout on her lips, I leaned down and kissed her, then helped her up and kissed her a little more passionately this time.

 She then said she really did have to go outside for a moment. I pulled on my trousers as she put on my tunic and I followed her.  Once we were both feeling more comfortable she made a quick breakfast for us as I packed our things.  She got dressed back in her own clothes and I pulled my tunic on.  It smelled just like her and she chuckled as she saw me sniffing my tunic.  She smelled of spices and sunshine, of deep green forests and fresh tilled loamy earth.  I asked her, what do I smell like to you? She thought about it, then said, “you smell like leather, male musk, a little like hazelnuts and sweat after an honest day’s labor.”  I just grinned at her and stuck out my tongue.  She said, “is that a promise for next time?”  Ooh, she was quick.  I laughed and said, “just tell me when you want to collect, and it is yours.”  She laughed so hard she gave herself the hiccups again. Chuckling, I gave her some water and then put out the fire. 

We both were very quiet as we stood wrapped close together at the mouth of the cave and took one last look around.  She said, “this is a very special place to me Kíli.”  I agreed saying, “for me too, love.”  With one more glance, we left our little place of solitude and headed to the main camp arm in arm.  I figured that would set the tone for what I had to tell the company.  As we got closer and they noticed us, they just stared. No one said anything when we got there.  The silence was deafening to say the least. I took a deep breath and announced, “as you all can see, my wife is perfectly healed now, and we are ready to go whenever you are.”

 Suddenly Uncle Thorin roared with laughter, startling everyone and shouted, “OK everybody, pay up. I'm going to be a very rich dwarf.”  My jaw dropped as one after another of the company tossed him a coin pouch and came to congratulate us. Even Legolas gave Uncle Thorin some gold! We both were stunned!  We were expecting total bedlam and instead we were being received with celebration. Uncle Thorin was the last to come and stand in front of us. All I could think to say was, “you made bets on us marrying, Uncle Thorin?  I would have thought you the last person to accept this union.”  He said, “honestly Kíli, it was like taking candy from a baby with these louts.  No one believed me and thought I was throwing the bet.  I haven’t lived this long to not see what is right in front of my face.”

 He gave us one of his rare smiles and pulled us both into a huge bear hug. “Now, you know your mother is never going to forgive me that I let you get married and not include her.  If she gives me any grief about this, trust me I will take it out on your hide.”  “That's not fair Uncle, you know she is going to be having fits about this.”  He had a huge grin on his face when he said, “I know.  Payback Kíli, payback.”  I covered my face and groaned.  He just laughed and slapped me on the back again.   Fíli also gave me a huge hug and slapped me on the back and laughed when he said, “when Mother finds out, I hope you can run faster than her because I can’t wait to see how you squirm your way out of this one!” Then he grabbed Tauriel and twirled her around, kissed her soundly on the cheek and said, “welcome to the family sister mine.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am in desperate need of kind, caring, considerate, constructive criticism (that's a lot of C's) on this story. I know I've stuck to canon as much as I could and this is setting up the foundation for the next 6 stories and all the novellas (most of which have been written but need some polishing) I am so tempted to just put out all the rest of this story at once so we can get to book two which is way more fun and realistic. Canon, for the most part, is long gone.  
> How can I make this story more appealing? What am I missing that is probably right in front of my face, but I can't see it. Help me step back and look at the big picture. With no BETA or editor, I am doing the best I can. I suppose I should not care really as this story was originally just for me to give me the HEA I needed but with so many people heartbroken by Peter Jackson ripping our hearts out and squashing them like bugs I just had to share it. So I guess if it is not up to snuff for others I should be glad to at least have a chance on AO3 to share it. I'm babbling........


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We start this chapter out a few days after Kili and Tauriel left their cave. The trials of being newlyweds on an adventure. Some things only brothers will understand and somethings brothers don't want to know about. A quick segue chapter before we hit the Lonely Mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies to anyone who is offended by the F-bomb (it is in Khuzdul and Kili was asleep so...)

 Kíli's POV- “Fíli.  Fíli? Fíli wake up.”  “Huh, wha-?  Kíli?” “Yeah, it’s me,” I whispered.  “Do you have a moment we can go for a quick walk?”  He eyed me suspiciously and said, “other than getting a good night’s sleep I have nothing planned.”  I apologized saying, “it will only be a few minutes, but I really needed to talk to you about something. Very important.  Now.”  He said, “OK, OK”. We started off the trail a bit, I found a stump to sit on and he leaned against a tree.  “Alright Kíli, what is so important that you had to wake me up in the middle of the night for a moonlit stroll?” 

“There is something that Tauriel and I have not told anyone, and we want to keep it a secret until we get back home.”  “Then why are you telling me Kíli?”  “Because I need your help. Protecting her.”  “Protecting her?!?  Kíli, she is an excellent warrior, I don’t see where she needs protection just because she married you.”  “Fíli, it is a little more complicated than that.”  “What is?”  “Well you see, the thing is…We’re expecting as well.”  “Expecting?  Expecting what?”  “Babies you goof, Tauriel is pregnant.”  “Are you sure she is Kíli, I mean, how do you know for sure she is pregnant?”  “Well, she is a healer and she said she could feel the babies start.  It must be an elf thing I guess, I’ve never heard of it before.  Plus, and this is odd, but, I feel a connection to them too.  Almost like I know them, and they know me.  I don’t know any other way to explain it.” 

“Whoa, little brother you do work fast!!”  “Ha-ha Fee.”  “No seriously Kíli, you got her pregnant that fast?”  “Well it wasn’t something we were planning on and I will spare you all the details.” “Thank you!!”  I snorted at him. “It happened and that’s the important thing. Even though she says she’ll be fine, I’m going out of my mind worrying about her and the babies.”  “Babies, Kíli?!  That is the second time you said that.  As in more than one?  Is there anything else I need to know that you are not telling me?”  “Aah, well…” “Well, what?!”  “See, the thing about elves is they can make themselves have as many babies as they want all at the same time, but they can hold some of them in stasis for later and Tauriel was not really concentrating on that when we were um…”   “Yeah, yeah, Kíli I get that part.”  “Ok so see when she woke up she realized that she had released a few more eggs than normal.”  “Like how many Kíli, I need a number.”  I sighed, knowing his reaction was going to be spectacular and said, “six”.  “SIX!??!!?”   With his eyes bulging out like that…and twitching too, I did an excellent job on him…yep, spectacular.  “Shhhhh, would you keep it down I don’t want anyone to know!!”  “I can see why I would send you two packing home if I were Uncle Thorin.”  “Yeah, see so that is why no one can know.  She would be really put out if anyone other than you knew.”  “Does she know I know?”  “No, she doesn’t. But if I did tell her I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t get too upset.”

 “Kíli for Valar's sake!” “Fíli, she just wants to be treated normally.  She is only letting two grow right now and we have no idea how long she will be pregnant or what signs or symptoms of pregnancy she will have or when because of the babies being hybrids.  I don’t want you to get hurt, but if you could just keep an extra eye on her for me…  Please?  She already understands how protective dwarven males are of their womenfolk and especially when they are pregnant, so she knows I may do stupid dwarvish things to keep her safe.  She gave me a few free passes,” I laughed.  “Ok Kíli, only for you would I do this, and it is against my better judgment, but one of us needs to have their head in the game.”

 “You know, Uncle Thorin was right?”  “What do you mean?”  “She has addled your brains”, he laughed.  “No. Actually, I think it was all the sex that addled my brains.”  “Awe man, **I DID NOT NEED TO KNOW THAT KÍLI!!!** ”  I smirked and Fíli just slugged me in the arm.  “Well Kíli, we speculated that an elf/dwarf pairing might have interesting results, and this seems to be just the beginning.  You know the old dwarven saying, ‘May you live in interesting times?’ Brother, I think you are in for some very interesting times!” 

“Are we all set then Kíli, because I need to go think about other things right now beyond your sex life.  Like maybe paint drying or snow falling.”  We quietly walk back to camp and wished each other a good night.  Good, Tauriel was fast asleep and did not miss me being gone.  I thought, Fíli is right though, she is an excellent warrior and very capable. I crawled back in with Tauriel snuggling up to her and held her in my arms. She squeaked a protest in her sleep at how cold I was, but I warmed up fast, and she cuddled back.  Her steady breathing and the sound of the fire calmed me and soon, I too was falling asleep again.

*************************

I had no idea how long I was asleep but the dream I was having about Tauriel was very arousing. I heard Tauriel softly whispering, “Kíli! Kíli, wake up!” I was trying to figure out why she was saying that in my dream, when I realized she was awake, and trying to wake me up.  “What’s wrong Tauriel?”  “Uhm, I think you were dreaming Kíli.” “I was actually dreaming. It was quite nice too,” I smirked.  “I know Kíli.” “Wait, how do you know?” “Uh, between you trying to couple with me in your sleep, and moaning, _Azralizi nâmrul (I want to fuck you)_ , I’m taking an educated guess it was a rather erotic dream.”  “I was?” She softly giggled, “yes silly. If you’re having that much fun in your dreams I want to be a part of it too.”  “Hmmm, do you now?” “Kíli so help me, you have me all worked up, you had better do something to relive me!”  I snickered at the sexual frustration in her voice mixed with a bit of perturbed wife. “Don’t you laugh at me Kili Durin!” She hissed. Oops! Perhaps a bit more sexually frustrated than I thought.  “My full name huh, well then I do believe I simply must do my husbandly duties to bring said relief and pleasure to you, my wife.” That had her covering her mouth and nose as she tried mightily not to snort; she failed.

“Now how are we going to do this without waking everyone up?” She asked. I thought for a moment and remembered something Fíli had told me a while ago that he had overheard.  “Do you think you can get your tights down to your ankles?” “Yes, with a little help on your part. What are you thinking of doing?” “Well if we get your tights down and I unlace my trousers I can hold you from behind with both of us on our sides. It won’t look so suspicious as if I were on top of you.” We worked her tights and shorts down, then I quick unlaced my trousers and as hard as I was it was easy to shimmy my trousers and shorts down a tad.

“I’m going to have to hold my leg up a little Kíli, and I think you’ll have to hold my hips.” After a bit of wiggling and scooting (and far too much giggling) I was able to feel her entrance. “Ready my love?” I asked her. “Please Kíli!” I put my fingers down to see how ready she was. Whoa, she was more than ready! I held myself to her and rubbed her entrance and up to her clit to get myself wet for her. I heard her muffled moan and figured she must be face down in her furs.

I slid quickly into her as she held up her leg and began to just move my hips only. I wasn’t tall enough to bite her the way she liked so I put everything I had into my thrusts. I knew she was at her peak when she whimpered loudly and squeaked a long sigh. Her orgasm tightening around me, along with her own thrusting movements pushed me clean over the edge! As I exploded into her I pushed my face into her back and groaned as quietly as I could. She made soft sounds of pleasure as I rutted through the last of my orgasm grunting my own pleasure.

I pulled out of her and she lowered her leg. I held her tight as we caught our breath. She turned her head to kiss me, so I scooted up a bit to indulge her. Once she had rested long enough she said she had to go relieve herself. She did not think elves got infections from the first few times of intercourse as dwarves and humans could, but she said it was the last thing she wanted on this trip.  Once she was out of sight I got nailed on the back of the head with a clod of dirt. I whipped my head around and Fíli was pretending to be asleep. I just grinned. Big brothers can be such a pain.

I was still getting the dirt out of my hair and our furs when Tauriel got back. “What happened?!” She whispered. I chuckled and said, “Fíli didn’t appreciate our lovemaking.” “Oh Mahal, Kíli! He heard us,” she gasped. Fíli shot back, “everybody heard you, I was just close enough to hit you!” “Oh Gods!” Tauriel hissed mortified.  “I am sooo sorry Fíli,” she whispered with so much remorse in her voice Fíli must have felt like an orc because he said, “Ah, you’re newlyweds, better you get it out of your systems now. Can ya just keep the moaning and groaning down a bit?”  “Oh Fíli, I will never let Kíli touch me again!” I heard several loud snorts about camp and so did Tauriel.

“Give it up love,” I said. She crawled back under the furs and I had to kiss her until she stopped hiccupping from chagrin.  “Oh Kíli, I am so embarrassed!” “Tauriel, don’t worry about it. They’re just jealous that I married you and they are all sleeping alone tonight.” I teased her, “I got some and they didn’t.” She just put her head on my chest and said, “I love you, _khuzd allâkhul!” (Stupid dwarf-like saying, “You goofball”)_

  Once she was asleep, I chuckled and heard Fíli whisper to me, “I’m never going to let you live this down baby brother.”

I shook my head, life was never going to be dull again.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, we have arrived at the Lonely Mountain. From here I concentrate less on Bilbo and Smaug (that story has already been told) and more about the interactions among the company and preparations for war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to do unspeakable things to the timeline...ignore it! Just go with it, and we will all be happy. I was pulling my hair out trying to fit in, fill in and stretch things and finally said to hell with it and rewrote the whole thing with a basic timeline. Timelines are the bane of creative writing! Remember once I spent 24 hours correcting the timeline in this book because I realized in book four I did a major oopsie and it literally took me a day to straighten it all out. I slept for 12 hours after that! UGH! I am putting up two chapters this week because I am so anxious to get to book 2!! 
> 
> Any information that is not completely accurate I will take full responsibility for. My 17 yr old autistic son got back home in June after being away for 18 months. We had a mad scramble to get him reestablished for school, almost a dozen doctors, and other legal matters. I have been so tired that I have been doing a terrible job on my fact-checking. I hope if you do find inaccuracies you'll sweetly with sugar on top let me know and I will try to see how to edit them. Real life sucks!! I would give my eye teeth to just submerge myself in this story and never come back. But at 48 I must adult (I hate adulting).

**Tauriel’s POV** -The closer we got to the mountain the more desolate it became.  As if the land itself were still mourning the losses from Smaug’s destruction nearly 200 years ago.  It was always overcast, no life except us seemed to be about.  No birds even.  We were all on edge and my men were looking forward to getting to Dale.  Gandalf really was the only one not affected and that kept the rest of us going.  The dwarves were very happy to have him back in their company again and the hobbit was an odd little fellow.  I had never met one before, but he was unfailingly polite and considering what his mission was, I felt brave beyond the call of duty. 

The ponies and horses paid the terrain no mind and we were able to find sparse places for them to crop the grasses. Small pools of water were plentiful and not stagnant, so it must rain here often. It gave us all fresh water to drink. With the provisions, the villagers gave us, our own stores of the lembas bread, and some earlier hunting, we were doing alright.  My men ate mostly the bread as it was what they were used to.  We kept our fires very small and covered them with a damp cloth, so sparks and smoke would not bring us as much notice.  On the third day, we could see the ruins of Dale and Gandalf told us we would make it there by noon.  For some reason, the thought of walls around us brought comfort even though we all knew they offered no real protection.  As we reached the town, we realized that a scouting mission was needed.  I did not ask my men as they had kept their word and had gotten us safely to Dale.  I told them to set up camp and to wait and see what would happen.  There was no point in them going back if Smaug was going to be prowling around.  Thorin had us set up camp too.  With it, so late in the season, it would be dark in a few hours and no one wanted to be moving about.

Gandalf had walked off a bit and even though we could not see him we heard him repeatedly whistling a soft trilling tune.  We all looked at each other but no one knew what he was doing.  He had been gone for a while. When he came back he had a very large, old, bird on his shoulder and he explained to us, “this is a very old bird indeed, a thrush, and it may be the last of the ancient breed that used to live about here.  They are long-lived and a magical race, this might even be one of those that were alive then, a couple of hundred years or more ago. 

The men of Dale use to have the trick of understanding their language and used them for messengers to fly to the men of the lake and elsewhere.  I have given this fine fellow a message to take back to Bard the Bowman. Letting him know we have arrived on time and to be ready.  For in no time, if all goes as planned, Smaug will be on his way to Lake Town to take his revenge on the men there.  Bard will be waiting with his black arrow and ready to kill Smaug.” 

“So, my fellow, off you go with Godspeed and a true flight.”  The bird took wing and was a speck on the horizon in moments.            

 It put me in a panic when Thorin called for Fíli, Kíli, Legolas, `and Balin to scout the front gate.  For Fíli and Kíli this was their first look at their ancestral home, Balin had been here 171 years ago, the day Smaug came.  Legolas had amazing eyesight, so he would be most helpful.  It felt like I held my breath the whole time they were gone.

Kíli had come to me before he left and told me not to worry, he had keen eyes too and good instincts.  He had picked me after all.  I laughed weakly and then he grabbed me to him and gave me the most passionate kiss.  I moved my hands into his hair and he held me like he never wanted to let go. We held each other for as long as we could until Thorin cleared his throat and said daylight was burning. It seemed like an eternity that they were gone.  I listened for any sounds and kept my thoughts positive that all four of them would be back soon, safe and sound.

 Once I saw them coming back it was like a weight had been lifted off my chest and I could actually feel the air in my lungs again.  It was one thing to fight a group of orcs, but something entirely different scouting a dragon’s lair.

As we all knew, there would be no going in that way but, neither had the dragon been out in a very long time.  At first light, we would head to the back of the mountain to find the door.  It would be Durin’s day and our only chance to get in. 

Kíli and I settled down for the night right after dinner.  We both were strung tight and being able to simply hold one another went a long way to giving us a sense of calm.  He did rub my belly and softly hummed to us.  I whispered to him one perk of being married was having a warm body to snuggle on a chilly night.  He quite agreed and we did kiss tenderly before we both fell asleep.

A cold blue light woke us in what seemed like only moments after closing our eyes.  Gandalf provided some light for us to unpack as much as we could from the ponies as we would not be able to use them until we were done, if then.  I told my men to return the ponies to the townsfolk if we did not return.  I thanked the men for being so loyal to us.  Once we had everything set to go, and the sky had lit enough for us to begin the final part of this journey; we were off.  We had not gone far when one of my men and another guard I did not recognize rode up to us.  The Guard said he had a message for Gandalf and Thorin.  That Thranduil was on his way to the mountains with an army.  I knew that was not a good thing and they both knew it as well.  Gandalf thanked the guard, then said we best make haste and get in the mountain. 

We did not break for lunch but ate cold food as we walked.  No one talked as the pace we set made it hard and really this place made you want to talk in hushed whispers if at all.  We made it to the foot of the mountain shortly after noon, though with the clouds it was hard to say really.  We began the climb Gandalf had shown us. It was very steep and narrow.  Thorin had us tie ourselves together in case of a fall.  It was quite treacherous, and I could not look down except to just watch where I put each foot.  I suddenly heard Bilbo exclaim that he could see a small shelf coming up and Legolas confirmed it.  It was larger than it looked when we all got up there and had room to spare.  Poor Bombur just fell flat on his face and did not move for quite a while as he tried to catch his breath and calm his nerves. 

We gave it a basic look around, knowing we really would not find anything until the last light of Durin’s day.  We all had it on our minds that with the cursed clouds we would not be able to see the keyhole, but luck, the Gods, or both were with us and to the west, the clouds broke up before the sun set and we had a clear sky.  It was almost too bright after days of cloud cover.  We all stood, watching, waiting, and waiting.  The sun was almost gone and then…nothing.  The moon had begun to rise over the mountain chasing the sun.  When the sun had set, and no keyhole had come we all felt defeated and drained.  We knew that this was Durin’s Day and the map had shown us where to be, the sun had even come out.  Every one of us but Gandalf and Bilbo had sat down and were leaning exhausted on each other or on a boulder.  We were stuck there for the night.  All of a sudden, Bilbo began to shout.  “I see it, I see it! The moon, the moon is the last light of Durin’s day, the runes were written by moonlight, it all makes sense now.”  Thorin rushed over with the key and pulled the chain off his neck and there in the flat of the mountainside was indeed a shadow telling us a keyhole was there.  Thorin slipped it in, turned it and a soft click was heard. Then a massive stone door pushed in. Nothing but pitch black was in front of us. A strange smell emanated from the hole, Thorin said, "that is the smell of dragon."

Kíli said, “now what?”  Bilbo piped up saying, “I do believe this is where I come in.”  We all rallied behind him but there was nothing more we could do.  We had to sit waiting, hoping, and praying.  Time seemed to stand still as the moon sunk beneath the horizon. Gandalf was kind enough to give us some light, even though the blue light was rather eerie, it was better than pitch black.

Without warning the whole mountain shook. A mighty bellow rang out through the mountains and hills.  We all huddled closer and closer to the door not sure what Smaug would do.  Legolas was scanning the skies and Kíli and Fíli were looking down the tunnel.  We were too afraid to go after Bilbo and make a mess of things.  After what seemed like forever, another roar was heard, this time in a rage to be sure and what sounded like an explosion sent shock waves up the tunnel knocking Kíli and Fíli down, and out tumbled Bilbo head over heels, smoking like a burnt pinecone.  I took my cloak and threw it around him trying as best I could to help.  When I heard him coughing, I yanked the cloak off of him as he fell flat on his back choking on smoke.  We gave him some room for air but waited on pins and needles for him to tell us what had happened.

Gandalf gave him some water and that seemed to bring him round somewhat.  He told us that it was now up to Bard.  Our lives hung on Bard’s arrow and his aim.  The sky was lightening as dawn approached and Gandalf said let us wait till we have a bit more light before we go in.  I do not think even Bombur was hungry but we all ate a light breakfast to just pass the time.  Thorin asked Bilbo to show us where Smaug has been and then he would be able to go from there from memory.

**Kíli’s POV-** If I had not been married and expecting our first children this would have been the grandest adventure of them all. I had heard so many stories from uncle Thorin and the company over my lifetime of this place.  We walked down the tunnel, well the dwarves and hobbit did.  Poor Gandalf and Legolas had to hunch right over and Tauriel was not much better.  By the time we got to the end, the sun was shining brightly through a massive hole in the wall, or rather where the doors must have been at one time.  The entire room glittered and shone from the vast treasure hoard.  It boggled my mind and I could tell from the look on all the other faces they felt the same.  Gandalf was talking to Bilbo while Tauriel and Legolas were just standing against a wall staring.  Uncle Thorin had taken some time to look around and I guess orient himself to the room and where he was because he said follow me to the armory and we can get ready for that elf.  I am not willing to go to war for this treasure.  It is the gold of my people but in the time that Smaug has been here much more of this is from elsewhere.  It will go a long way in helping rebuild Dale, Erebor, as well as Lake Town for I fear they will no longer have a home soon.  We followed Uncle Thorin and in what felt like a maze to me, but he seemed to know where he was, to a huge room that was lined with armor of every kind.  From pure gold and jewel-encrusted, all the way down to your basic steel armor.  Uncle Thorin called me and Fíli over and handed us both, almost reverently, dwarven armor.  Mine had a bluish cast to it and Fíli’s a greenish cast. Uncle Thorin took what seemed like red and gold armor.  He quietly said it was his Father’s.  The rest of the company was soon outfitted as well.  Legolas whistled when Thorin pulled something silver from a shelf and gave it to Bilbo.  Legolas said it was a Mithril shirt. Mithril was a dwarvish armor that was feather light and impenetrable.  Some elves had it and it was quite rare and very coveted.  There was nothing to give Legolas or Tauriel and I panicked.  Uncle Thorin was a step ahead of me though as he brought them both shields and helms.  Legolas thanked Uncle Thorin but said it would only make it difficult for him to shoot his arrows.  Tauriel agreed.  I said, "maybe some chain mail.  It may not fit perfectly but something is better than nothing."  She came to my side and said, "I fight best as I am now _Amrâlimê_.  Do not worry I will let the rest of you fight while Legolas and I cover you."

Gandalf came over and said, "we should build up fortifications on the doors before you put on your armor, as the orcs will know if Smaug has died just as the rest of middle earth will know.  When magic that ancient and powerful is destroyed, it will send tremors through the world." 

We began the arduous work of rebuilding what we could of the doors to fortify them and by nightfall we had it closed shut but for a small fraction in which to exit and watch from the parapets.  Darkness came, and we lit torches in the mountain and kept watch at the small door.  Ori suddenly shouted and pointed down the river towards Lake Town.  It had taken us a long time on horses and ponies to get to the mountain but in less than a day the dragon had reached the town.  It was far away but the bursts of flame, though small, were recognizable as dragon fire.  Then the most deafening ear-piercing shriek reverberated off the walls and made our bones vibrate, and we knew.  Bard had hit his mark true.  A mighty flame spouted in the air!  At speeds that we could not comprehend waves crashed against the lakeshore far below, from Smaug plummeting into the lake.

From the tremors, some of the fortifications at the door had loosened so we fixed the door and reinforced it better.  I looked at everyone’s faces, and it seemed that no one, not even Gandalf or Uncle Thorin knew what to do now.  The Elven army was on its way, and soon following them would most likely be all the races of middle earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On to chapter 15!


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> War! Hormonal she-elf on a rampage! Writing my first detailed battle scene (never google this for details-mind boggling what soldiers go through in battle. No wonder they have PTSD!) Quite different from the book and the movies!! Yay!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are 2 ways that guarantee you will win a war. 1-Tell menopausal women that behind the enemy is chocolate, wine and Sam Elliott (I'd prefer Aiden, Dean or Richard personally). The war will be over in 5 minutes. 2-have an army of pregnant women and tell them that the food they crave most, every episode of Friends, and a personal body massage is waiting for them behind the enemy. The war will be over in 2 minutes. Speaking from both perspectives, I hold this to be true!!
> 
> When Kili talks about whacking off the heads of orcs, I am referencing to a behind the scenes video of Peter Jackson telling the guys to keep whacking the rock off the mountain where the door is on Durin's Day. Peter eggs them on basically calling them wimps. The guys are all complaining so Peter tells them he could have certain magazines brought up to help them with their whacking off. The look on Richard's face was priceless and Graham had a few raunchy comments to that, that had me laughing so hard I had to put it in here. I just wanted a quick laugh before things got messy.

**Kíli’s POV-** Word of Smaug’s demise had indeed reached far across Middle Earth and the armies of the races came to us, moving to the mountain for their claim on the great treasures.   Thranduil’s army arrived first, later the survivors of Lake Town were there in Dale as well.  From the west, we could hear another army and by nightfall, we saw campfires in the valley.  Uncle Thorin assured us it was his cousin Dain and he would keep the rest of the stragglers in check. 

What I did not know was that Bilbo had found the Arkenstone and given it to Uncle Thorin.  He showed it to us and said to me and Fíli that it was our birthright as well.  He said once we knew for sure what was going on we would send Bilbo with it to verify to the other leaders that The King Under the Mountain ruled once more. 

The other clans of dwarves, the elves, as well as the humans and Numenoreans each sent a delegate to the mountain and demanded to speak with Thorin as they wanted a claim on the treasures in the mountain.  Bilbo was able to sneak down to the elves, the dwarf lords, and the humans and explain the situation.

 He came back and reported that he had showed them the Arkenstone as proof of Thorin’s claim to be King under the Mountain. Telling them that Thorin was fully ready to split the treasure among any willing to be his allies.   But the elves and humans were not willing to believe Uncle Thorin and had tried to capture Bilbo to steal the Arkenstone and use as bait with Uncle Thorin to force him into just giving them what they felt they had coming to them.  None of us, the dwarves especially, could believe this.  Uncle Thorin had offered them the treasures but in _their_ greed, they would not recognize him as king.  Tauriel and Legolas bespoke Thranduil. Thranduil said that Legolas was to return to him immediately and that Tauriel was forever banished from The Woodland Realm.  I was enraged and ready to go down myself if I had to.  But both Legolas and Tauriel said it was not worth it. Legolas spoke to his father. Saying when he came to his senses then he would talk to him, but until then he was an ally to The King Under the Mountain. 

Before it could go any further into fighting amongst the races, the orcs, and other evil creatures of the Dark Emperor began to fill the valley and it was war.  We hastily donned our armor, held our ground as we knew they would be climbing up the mountain from the back.  That door had been sealed shut so they could not get to us that way.  We were ready though when the first heads began to pop through our door and we just kicked them to the side as we lobbed them off.  The orcs made it impossible to do anything but fight.  Uncle Thorin, covered by me and Legolas ran to the parapet and bellowed to the kings below asking again for aid in killing the orcs, so he could work with the other races in doling out the treasure.  This time all were willing to help.  Some lead by greed, some, like the dwarves, led by loyalty to their king and kinsman. Uncle Thorin used great ravens that had flown in with the armies to bring word down to the armies the plan of attack so that he and the company could rally and eradicate the orcs.  Once they stopped coming in the door and down the mountain we realized they were just the scouts and soon more would be on their way.  We watched the battle rage on.

The elves were able to decimate the first and second wave of orcs but then the dwarves battle machines were needed as the orcs had creatures that were enormous and were moving quickly towards the ranks of the allies.  With their arrows, war machines, as well as battle rams and battle boars, the dwarves were able to take on the third wave.  By this time, the humans had set traps for the monstrous things. They fell like trees in a high wind and were quickly dispatched with swords, axes, and anything that resembled a weapon.  They may be puny by dwarven standards, but I know Uncle Thorin had a new respect for them.  Soon there was no time to watch the battle as we began to have more orcs get up the mountain and the company was forced to battle them until help could arrive.  Gandalf, Uncle Thorin was told, had sent for help and it would be here soon.  None of us knew for sure how long we could hold out.  At that point, we were just holding them back but unable to make any gains.  We had the advantage but for how long nobody knew for sure.

I could tell Tauriel was getting extremely frustrated with the whole thing. Never ending orcs popping their heads in to have them whacked off was wearing the Company out.  She and Legolas held on to their arrows as we just kept whacking heads off.

“Tauriel! Calm down love! We are doing fine, just stay back!”  “Kíli, I will not hide while others fight our battles for us! I am not going to just stand here for much longer!” She screamed at me. Mahal was she scary! She was getting a battle-crazy look in her eyes. “Tauriel I will stop you if I have to! I’m sorry, it’s the male dwarf in me. I can’t let you hurt yourself!”  It was then that Fíli shouted my name. “Kíli, you’re up for head lobbing brother! I hollard to him, “keep Tauriel out of this!” He took one look at her and said, “I don’t know Kíli, I don’t think she’ll let me.” I had no time to argue as the next head came through. How stupid were these orcs? I mean there had to be a pile of bodies out there, right? As long as they kept coming, I’d just keep whacking them off.

 Without warning, rocks and dust began falling on us as the reinforcements on the wall began to fall out. We knew the orcs were above us now as well.  A large portion of the wall suddenly fell out, leaving a huge gap in our defenses. It was then that Tauriel nearly gave me a heart attack when I saw her grab her daggers, rushing the next orc, and pushing it back out as she eviscerated it, never stopping for a second!

I was hot on her feet!  With something close to a primal scream, she let loose on a pack of 20 orcs and wargs before any of the rest of us could come to her aid. She was practically a blur between her arrows shooting out the eyes of the wargs, and literally doing a hack and slash on any orc close enough for her to reach, leaving her in the middle of carnage and a bloodbath screaming, “No! I’m not done with you yet! Get back here you fatherless scat eaters! Wretched warg coupling maggots!  I’ll beat you so bad you’ll becomes elves again!! 

The look on Uncle Thorin’s face was stunned. “Kíli, she is insane, and I think a littler berserk, but Mahal can she fight. Those were some rather creative insults as well, by the way." It was at this point Legolas came over to us and looked right at me, asking in a rather demanding voice with just a hint of amusement, “You didn’t get her pregnant did you Kíli?  Only a pregnant she elf can be that creative with insults.  Why do you think we wait a thousand years between children?” He smirked. Uncle Thorin said to Legolas, “I think she has been hanging around the dwarves too much, elves don’t know how to properly insult like that,” he laughed. I stared at this she elf that was my most sweet and tender wife. “I just realized I had best never get on her bad side.” “She is most certainly going to keep you on your toes Kíli.” Legolas chortled. “She’s been my sister for nearly six hundred years, believe me, that red hair is a warning signal more than a mark of beauty.” He slapped me on the back and we all turned back to Tauriel.

Suddenly Tauriel turned to us and started crying.  I rushed to her. “Tauriel, are you wounded, what’s wrong?”.  She just bawled, “No Kíli I’m fine but I crushed all these pretty flowers. It’s so horrible! I could really use a hug right now though, love.”  I noticed Bilbo had been watching all this with saucer like eyes.  He was muttering that Tauriel was simply a wild woman.  I heard him say, “very uncivilized, and she seemed so nice before.” I just shook my head and chalked it up to pregnancy hormones.  I helped her up and just held her. True proof of my love, seeing as she was covered in warg and orc gore.

We were all so caught up in Tauriel’s battle that it took us by complete surprise when huge boulders started falling down on us. Everyone was scrambling to get back in, but the way was now blocked by all the boulders and rubble!  We had nowhere to run.  Coming down the mountain was a hoard of orcs and following them; was Azog the Defiler. 

I knew Uncle Thorin had been waiting for this day for over a hundred years.  “I want all of you to deal with those orcs and keep them away from me!” He ordered. “It is time I finally finish this. Azog has been putrefying good air for far too long!” The look of sheer determination and hatred on his face gave me hope we would win this. Faster than we could imagine the orcs descended to the entrance of the great hall.  Legolas, Tauriel and I spread out, blazing them with arrows. Many fell to their death taking fellows with them as they went. It became absolute confusion as we fought. The ground was slippery with entrails and blood as well as body parts of the orcs. There were so many of them. Thankfully they were stupid. I looked around for a moment and saw that Azog was simply waiting, watching Uncle Thorin. 

Both of them knew the time had come for one of them to die.  My adrenaline was rushing through me as I fought like never before. I was trying to take out as many orcs as I could, keep an eye on Tauriel and still be able to watch Uncle Thorin in case he needed help. The orcs were close enough to simply jump to the ground and begin to attack us.  The Company was fighting fiercely. That filled me with such pride to see their bravery and cunning in fighting the enemy. Gandalf was doing some sort of magic, I think, because orcs were running off the side of the mountain! Even Bilbo with his small sword was dashing in and out, roundabout, slashing the legs of the orcs making it easier for the Company to slay them.

The arrows were flying from the three of us. We were doing a decent job of thinning the ranks until I ran out of arrows. I quickly put my bow on my back as I fumbled to get my sword. I was running into the fray before I had a clear idea what I should be doing.  Tauriel covered me as best she could with her arrows.  Legolas was running cover for the rest of the dwarves and the hobbit. 

A bone shocking mighty roar was suddenly heard as Uncle Thorin and Azog clashed.  For just a moment everyone stopped to watch.  Then all hell broke loose as the orcs tried to finish us off.  Several dwarves were already wounded but were bravely fighting as best they could to keep as many orcs from helping Azog until Uncle Thorin could kill him.  I heard a bellow of pain, but it was not Uncle Thorin, that had to have been Azog from one of Uncle Thorin’s blows. I saw Fíli slash the head off the orc in front of him with a single swing. Then he turned. I followed his glance to see Uncle Thorin jumped back as Azog cunningly made a swipe for his legs. That set his off balance and he fell against Azog. He took the opportunity of his momentum to thrust his blade into Azog’s groin. Unfortunately, he missed his mark and did not sever the artery. All he could do was push off the orc and back up preparing for the next rout.

  “Kíli!” Fíli shouted for me as he ran to aid Uncle Thorin.  We had not seen that Azog had indeed wounded Uncle Thorin’s leg and he was unable to stand. He crumbled to the ground but was still holding Azog off as Fíli attacked and stabbed Azog in the side to get his attention.  Azog screamed and turned, Fíli was able to dodge him, positioning himself in front of Uncle Thorin. 

Tauriel and I arrive just as Fíli tried to fend off Azog swinging his ax. Fíli was no match for that and the blow smashed Fíli into the mountain wall.  He crumbled in a heap and did not move.  By then Uncle Thorin was up again, dragging his lame leg as fast as he could to distract Azog from Fíli.  The three of us moved away from Fíli and around the curve of the mountain.  We could hear the shouts from the company, but we were just as busy and could not break away.  Uncle Thorin fended off a rush from Azog and turned driving his sword into Azog’s thigh, but he could not pull it out in time and faltered on his bad leg, falling and hitting his head. He did not get up but was trying to move, leading me to believe he was stunned.

Azog rushed to Uncle Thorin, laughing in a sickening way. He had his ax over his head getting ready for the killing blow. Uncle Thorin was able to hold up his sword but that was all the strength he had. I had to do something and fast! I rushed Azog from behind and literally climbed his back and tried to grab his ax while Tauriel was able to nock off several arrows into Azog’s neck and chest, then she ran in front and slashed a deep gash his stomach.  Azog howled in agony swinging his ax at Tauriel. She was thrown to the ground, rolling towards the edge of the cliff!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is a cliff hanger-literally, but my next post will be chapter 16 and the concluding chapter 17. Then on to book 2 *happy dance*  
> I am so ready to hunt down the people at Pinterest and sic Tauriel on them!! I am really trying to get a Pinterest page with boards for each chapter for each story up and it is being so difficult! (to quote The Beast) I will post next week and hopefully I am not a woman on the lam!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have tissues ready. I was crying as I was writing this. Double chapter though, so we will finish book 1!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" - Sherlock Homes  
> Keep this in mind for the next two chapters...and the whole rest of my book LOL

**Tauriel’s POV-** I was able to stop myself before I got to the edge of the cliff. The power of Azog’s strike had knocked the wind out of me. I wasn’t able to move right away as I tried to catch my breath. Struggling for air, I rolled over, trying to find Kíli. I saw him grab Azog’s ax, trying to strangle him with it.  But the orc reached up over its head and grabbed him. Before I could even scream, he had impaled Kíli through the heart with his ax.  Shock set in as I stared in complete disbelief. This could not be true! I did not just witness the death of my husband. **NO! NO! NO!**   My brain was numb. My heart was thundering…as I just stared at the improbable, the impossible!

I could not have just found my perfect mate, my One, the father of our children, only to lose him to some vile orc. Life didn’t work that way; it couldn’t. Kíli was my entire world, and he was dying before my eyes. All I could do was reach to Kíli and whisper, no.  Kíli turned his head to find me, looking at me with love and sorrow as a tear ran down his face. Then the light left his eyes.

I think I was shrieking Kíli’s name over and over as I refused to believe it. I would never believe it! Kíli would be alright; he was just, …he…was…just… 

Then Azog looked at me. It threw back its ugly head. Laughing at me! Mocking my loss!

Everything I saw was in a blurry red haze. Burning rage filled me, my ears pulsed with the blood rushing through me! Even though I was shaking, and my body felt like a child’s poppet, I moved to stand and face the orc. For the Durin’s. Fíli, Thorin, and my Kíli, as well as the rest of Middle Earth. I was going to end his life in the most torturous way I could possibly think. I was going to mutilate and desecrate its body!

Azog would not live for any longer than it took to slaughter it and it would be by my hands it would die!  I tried to rise and rush the orc… I tried moving any part of my body, but I could not get up! I was literally paralyzed in place somehow, only able to move my head and neck. 

A startling buzzing sound, like hundreds of enraged bees, filled my ears as I watched the orc laugh. Holding my beloved’s body, as if it were nothing more than a carcass. I saw oily black blobs begin to form out of thin air and into a swarm, circling over the orc.  It tried swatting them and began to move slowly away.  When he dropped Kíli’s ruined body to the ground, that seemed to be what this swarm was waiting for, because they descended upon the orc with lightning speed, encircling him.

 I heard a high pitch scream come from the orc, as if in great agony. Then the sound of bones being splintered and broken. The orc was now squealing like a stuck pig, as putrid black blood was draining from the swarm to the ground.  The blobs moved faster and faster until they were a blur. The sound of the swarm’s buzzing rage was deafening. I could feel it throughout my whole body!

Just as suddenly as this had all started, the blobs were gone. As was Azog!!  Gone!  Not even its blood was on the ground.  But Kíli was. I tried to crawl over to his still form, to hold him, when everything around Kíli began to grow bright.  Now, the air was filled with small orbs of light with little trails of light behind each one! They began to circle Kíli making him glow with their light.  He was lifted into the air. What were the lights going to do to him?!

While hanging there lifeless, the lights moved to encircle him.  But instead of the sound of angry bees, it was more the sound of tiny bells in a breeze.  This musical sound had me smiling and laughing like a child in delight. I had no idea why the lights were making me feel this way. As they moved faster and faster around Kíli, they grew in brightness until it was of an intensity that far surpassed that of the noonday sun. I could no longer look for fear of blindness.  Even with my eyes closed tight I could still see the light and hear the bells.  The air grew warm and smelled of flowers and summer.  All this made my heart want to leap for joy in my chest. I had no idea how long the lights were there; time had no meaning. As the light dimmed I could feel within me the babies move; I could feel their powers were somehow a part of all this.  But how?! I had only just become pregnant.

 I didn’t have time to dwell on it as Kíli moaned. I looked up to see him rolled over into a ball.  On my hands and knees, I moved quickly to him, holding him to me. I was crying his name, unsure what to make of all this.  He lolled his head around a bit and slowly stretched every limb while groaning, then made fists with his hands.  He looked at me, dazed and confused, asking me, “what happened, Tauriel?”  I just stared at him. I was filled with joy, that he was alive. I was filled with fear, that this was all my imagination.  I didn’t even know where to start. I could only look at him in a marveling state of wonder, feeling his body move as he breathed. I started crying simply because his perfect sable eyes were watching me, and he blinked.  He was alive! In a crazy repetition, those words ran through my mind. My hand was shaking so hard as I reached to touch his face, I was afraid I might hurt him. He reached up and took my hand and held it to his cheek. I knew he was confused, he wanted answers, but he took the time to just hold my hand against his hot skin and let me feel his pulse.

I took me a while to stop crying. He waited for me to try and gather everything that was scrambled in my brain, so I could explain to him what had just happened to us.

He soothed me with his voice. It was glorious to hear his deep voice again. Lovelier than any sound I had ever heard.

I was still shaking as mustered my wits, and slowly went through the explanation of Azog killing him, then the black blobs and the light orbs.  “Kíli, it was our babies that have saved you. Somehow, they knew you were in danger. Their magic reached out killing the orc and saving your life!”

Kíli was now in just as much shock as I was. We simply held each other as we both worked to overcome the bewilderment of what had happened.  I started crying again, and sobs came from Kíli as well.  It was so hard to believe that we had almost lost each other.  His clothes were ruined, but he did not have a scratch on him.  “The babies did this Tauriel?!?!”  I was still crying, but I smiled as I remembered the way it made me feel when they used their magic.  “Yes Kíli, yes, it was our children that saved you.  They have powers of their own somehow, and with your connection to them, they dispatched Azog and then brought you back to me, to us.  How do you feel?” “A little light-headed, and my skin does tingle a bit, but other than that I am fine.”  I knew he was downplaying this for me, but he did overall seem to be alright.

 He stood up carefully and helped me up. We held each other tightly, kissing deeply, with a passionate overload of emotions. Grateful for the miracle that we had been blessed by the Gods with. He put his forehead to mine as we caught our breath.  I whispered, “we should check on the others soon.”  That seemed to snap him out of his dazed state as he yelled for his uncle.

**Kíli’s POV-** I remember jumping on Azog’s back, struggling to get the ax, but he swung and hit Tauriel.  I was simultaneously terrified for her and enraged at what Azog had done as I saw her rolling towards the edge.  I grabbed the ax, but Azog grabbed me, and that was all I remember.  At least until I heard Tauriel crying out for me.  It felt like the time I was a young boy and had been in a field when a tree was struck by lightning. The light from the lighting traveled to me and knocked me off my feet and flat on my back.  I could not breathe, and my skin tingled like when your leg falls asleep only much, much worse.  I felt very tingly right now and very sore.  Tauriel was sobbing when I opened my eyes. I had to calm her down somehow.  She grabbed me, pulling me to her and just held me.  I then realized that she was okay except for some bleeding on her face from where she must have hit the ground.

The story she told me of the happenings after I blacked out were unbelievable, except I had to believe them. There were too many things showing me the truth of her words. I was in shock already I guess from being brought back to life. Add to it the agony Tauriel must have gone through thinking me well and truly gone, really had me shaking. I could not think straight. I knew we had something to do, but I was so befuddled I could not remember.

  When she said, we needed to help the others; I suddenly remembered Uncle Thorin on the ground, as well as Fíli, crumpled on the mountainside! I yelled at the top of my lungs for them.  We found Uncle Thorin not far from us, still stunned and unable to speak. His eyes were such I knew he had a concussion as well as the wounds Azog had given him. He was under his shield making it hard for him to breathe properly. His leg had indeed been injured. There was a massive swelling to his shin and calf. He also had a sizable gash along his ribcage. It was not bleeding freely, but I still pulled off my ruined armor, and then his. Using my undershirt, I bunched it up and pushed it to the wound hoping that would help until I could get him back to safety. I pulled my tunic back on, “Tauriel, please stay with him. If there is any healing you can do, please try. I do not think there will be any danger, but do you have your daggers?” “I have one Kíli, and my bow is just over there. We will be fine.” I had lost my sword, so I grabbed Uncle’s and went to see what was happening. 

I retraced my steps and found Fíli unconscious in a heap against the mountain bleeding from a serious head wound. He had blood coming from his ears, nose, and mouth.  He was still alive though.  I peeled his armor off him, then opened his clothes, only to see that his chest had blossomed into a giant black bruise, that made him look almost bloated. He was bleeding internally, as well as a lung may have been punctured.  One thing for sure was his armor saved him from being completely crushed by Azog.  I would need Tauriel to heal him, but I did not know if we could do it from the mountain. 

I was just starting to panic when Dwalin came around the corner and found us.  “What’s happening Dwalin?!” He said, “the rest of us are faring well. The orcs, they are all on the run Laddie, the Eagles came. Turned the tide for us. They were picking the orcs up off the mountain and dropped them from miles in the air.  Then flying back for more.  The bloody buggers quit fighting and tried to escape, but the Eagles just kept coming until the orcs were gone.  Now everyone is wondering what happened to the rest of you.  Legolas and Gandalf are seeing to the wounded.” I told Dwalin of Fíli’s injuries and that Uncle Thorin was not much better off but that Azog was gone.  “He got away, Kíli?!” “No, he was killed, but there is no body.  Tauriel witnessed the whole thing and saw Azog die for sure.  I need you to bring uncle Thorin here, and maybe Tauriel can help them both with her healing.”

He ran around the corner returning quickly with Uncle Thorin. Tauriel was following him.  He gently set Uncle Thorin down near Fíli.  I looked to Tauriel to see if she could help.  She was crying as she looked at Fíli, “I’ll do my best love.”  She glanced at Dwalin, put her hands on her belly and then looked back at me.  I understood immediately. “Dwalin, please go get Gandalf if you would and just send him.  If Gandalf cannot come, then let us have some time to mourn our dead in peace.”  He wasn’t sure what to do, but I barked, “Now Dwalin! It’s imperative!” Instinct took over as he ran for Gandalf.  Tauriel came to get a closer look at Fíli.  “Your Uncle Thorin will be fine. He just has a nasty knock to the head that will leave his ears ringing for days. The gash to his side is mostly superficial, and he is coming around slowly. I'm a little worried about his leg though. I'm not sure if a bone is broken or just bruised.”  By that time, she had been touching Fíli gently around his chest, stomach and then his neck.  She looked at me sadly and said, “Kíli, I’m so sorry, there is nothing I can do for him.  He is bleeding inside, it sounds as if a lung is punctured, and his neck is broken. My magic cannot heal these kinds of wounds, nor do I have the supplies to help him either. He is still alive, for now. He may wake before…” 

My heart just broke.  I could not lose my brother!  I pleaded, “Can’t the babies could help him Tauriel?”  “If they could they most likely would have already done so, Kíli. I do not know how they did it in the first place. I am thinking to them as hard as I can, but they seem to be waiting for something…I just, I don’t what. Kíli, I’m so sorry!”  I held her. Feeling an unspeakable ache for my brother, and for Tauriel. She loved Fíli too, and I knew in a moment like this she was berating herself for not having the skills I was asking her for. “Tauriel, love, I’m not angry. It is not your fault at all, you’ve done the very best for Fíli. I love you for that.” I held her and just stared at Fíli. My mind filling with so many memories of my life with him. How in Mahal’s name would I go on without him?  I had Tauriel and the children soon…but they were not my brother. I could not stop crying as Tauriel, and I held each other, trying to comfort each other as much as we could in our sorrow.

With no idea of time, I don’t know how long it took, but Gandalf came around the corner at that moment along with the rest of the company. Gandalf took complete command and ordered them to stand in a circle around Fíli and Uncle Thorin. Then told them to rest their hands to the next fellow’s shoulder, while he stood at the front.  He then called Tauriel, and I swear the old wizard winked at her, but I was crying too hard to be sure.  He had me stand on the other side of him.  I had no idea what Gandalf was going to do, but if it saved my brother, I would do anything he asked of me.

 With all the dwarves touching, Tauriel on one side of Gandalf and me on the other, he raised his staff causing it to glow blue.  The light shining over us was brilliant.  Then it began to turn golden like a sunrise and grew even brighter.  I could hear the chiming of bells far off. The brightness became such that I had to close my eyes and avert my head. The other dwarves cried out at the brightness of the staff as well.  Gandalf spoke elvish in a gentle voice like he was talking to a child. He seemed to be cajoling someone.  After a space of silence, the light flashed so bright I could not see anything anymore, I was literally blinded by the brightness, like staring at the sun.  I did not know what was happening, and even though I should have been in a panic, I felt calm and happy. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurry up and get to chapter 17 (remember the quote from the top notes though!!)


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We wrap up book one. You get a ton of foreshadowing. Everybody lives (bad guys die nasty deaths) and we can let Pappa Tolkien breathe a sigh of relief that I did not kill canon quite as bad as I could have. That left for far too much dry reading...no BETA, dry reading...such is life.  
> Keep that Sherlock Holmes quote firmly planted in your minds...you will need it. I solve one of the main problems with a true HEA between mortals and immortals. Thank you Mahal!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Anything can happen in fantasy fiction if you say screw Newton's laws.  
> 2\. I WANT TO BELIEVE!  
> 3\. magic and science are the same thing with a nice heaping helping of religion added to the blend.

 

**Tauriel’s POV-** Gandalf looked to me, winked, and smiled as he took my hand.  I did not know what he was doing, but for Kíli and Thorin’s sake, I was praying he could save Fíli where I had failed to.  My heart ached, and I was so tired.  Abruptly, a blue light shown upon us. I looked up to see Gandalf holding his staff over his head.  The others were looking at it as well until it became the same brightness as when the babies healed Kíli.  Gandalf then held the staff over Fíli and began to ask the babies if they might help their mother with ones she loved very much, who were their father’s brother and Uncle.  He seemed to listen to them, but I could hear nothing. He spoke to them again, this time I did not understand all he said, but I began to feel happy. A lightness of hope filled me. 

Gandalf was now telling the babies to only heal Fíli and Thorin, not make them undying as they had done to their father. That would be for another time. I did not understand what Gandalf meant by that, but Fíli and Thorin began to glow like Kíli had, only there were no orbs of light this time and I was able to watch them glowing.  Time again stood still as the brightest of flashes spread out from Fíli to all the dwarves. They all fell to the ground including Kíli.  Gandalf held my hand tight, so I did not move.

As the lights went away, I felt so much love from the babies.  They loved me! They knew me already, and they loved me! They loved Kíli, Fíli, and Thorin too.  I was crying from joy when Gandalf let go of my hand. I caressed my belly letting the babies know how much I loved them for all they were and all they had done for me and those we all loved.  It was like getting a hug from inside.  I cannot describe it in any other way. 

I knelt down to Fíli, calling his name while holding his hand, rubbing it.  I could see the black bruise was gone and the blood on his head was gone as well as the wound.  I turned and looked at the other dwarves. There did not seem to be a scratch on them either!  I looked up at Gandalf, and he was smiling from ear to ear looking at me. He simply said, “Congratulation, to both you and Kíli on your blessings.”  Then I think he muttered, “better you two than me,” but I could not be sure for right at that moment both Fíli and Thorin came around.  Both were quite dazed, the same as Kíli had been. I wondered to myself about Gandalf’s word, ‘undying.’  I would think about it later, as now one by one all the dwarves were waking up.  Legolas came up and just stared at me in wonder.  I forgot he was there.  I asked him if he heard. He just nodded. I asked, “what does it mean?”  “Only Galadriel will be able to answer that Tauriel.  But indeed, whatever happened was a miracle.”  Poor Bilbo looked quite out of sorts at all the magic he had just witnessed and was murmuring to himself and shaking his head.

 

 

** An Epilog of Sorts **

**Thorin’s POV-** We had reached our goal.  We had taken back our homelands.  Together with much help from folk, I would call friends for millennia to come.  The dwarves had come, all of them, and the killing fields had been cleared of the dead. Tents were erected as we were finishing the rebuilding.  The dwarves happily moved back into the mountain they called home.  Those from other lands found places to stay while we worked.  The other races were in the valley rebuilding Dale to a new glory, a new age. The elves from all four kingdoms had come to help us as well, and we worked side by side.  We had learned much and were wiser now.  I was not infected with the gold sickness of my grandfather, so the vast treasures, which Smaug had added to, were put to appropriate use in rebuilding the land and healing old wounds among us all.  

Things that I would never have dreamt to have happened to bring peace and plenty to middle earth occurred many years in the future after my own change. I will not make the same mistakes, of not only my past, but those of the dwarven kings of old.  I have learned much and will not allow history to repeat itself.  If we do not learn from our past, then we are doomed to repeat those mistakes until we learn, and I have learned the lessons well. 

To bring about this great feat many minds were turned to their gods. In turn, those Gods turned to Eru, or Ilúvatar as he was also known.  The father of Arda and the Gods.   He came to us in all His glory and might.  All bowed before him as he stretched forth his hands and in one motion began to cleanse the lands, the waters, the deep dark places of the evil that had grown and spread malignant for far too long.  The light shown for three days and three nights as all things foul and despised were eradicated from middle earth.  The light was like nothing we had seen before, and you could not help but feel peace and joy from it.  After the third day, the Valar walked amongst us and bestowed their blessings upon us.  We were told to be prosperous but not greedy, to have charity and lay aside selfishness. In all things, be hard workers and good souls. Then we would want for nothing. 

I, Thorin, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, felt that goodness and I know that the hearts of the races of middle earth have changed forever more.  As a people, we have suffered much, but that time is now in the past.  The veil between the Gods and the people is no more.  When the time comes for those to receive their final rest, if they chose to not partake of the dwelves blessing, they will go in peace, and we will not mourn them for we shall be known to them and them to us. The ancestors of old are known to us as well. To be reunited with my family that had already passed on was the greatest of all the blessing for me.

The prophecy between Ilúvatar and Mahal had come to pass, bringing forth immortality to the dwarves through the line of Durin.

It is a great and shining world before us, and we will labor in it and make remarkable things happen.  The Gods have restored the homes to all the races of middle earth, and we have all gone to those respective homes. We have found them whole and bounteous as they were in their golden age. Trade has flourished, and no one stands in need.  There are no rich or poor.  The mighty do not power over the weak.  There is privilege for all.  Wars are a forgotten thing.  Weapons are only needed for the protection from the natural order of things, not the evil or supernatural.  Things we understand.  To stay at the top of the food chain so to speak.  We no longer needed defense against the likes of men or monsters.  I am not speaking lightly of the remarkable things that happened to us.  But in the words of Tauriel, “Thorin, now we will all have our happy endings.” 

I have spoken my peace, and there is still much to tell in the lives of our friends and families before these profound changes occurred. I will turn this story back to Tauriel and let her finish what she started.

**Gandalf’s POV-** Ever since I met up with the company across from Lake Town and realized they had grown exponentially with the addition of the elves, I found myself wondering why they had come.  There was something afoot here that I should be remembering but with so many things on my mind and how imperative our task on the journey was, I could not remember.  It wasn’t until I began noticing young Kíli and young Tauriel slipping off to be by themselves and spending the days traveling just talking like they were in their own little world, that it came to me. 

The prophecy!  That Mahal had been promised his people would gain eternal life when the enmity between the dwarves and elves would come to an end, and there was a union between them.  I had not thought the prophecy would be so literal.  I had to laugh then as I saw how hard the dwarves and elves were trying to keep them apart.  Such foolishness! 

When a prophecy wants to be fulfilled, nothing will stop it.  I just felt like I needed to find the right moment to give it a gentle nudge in the right direction.  I had to shake my head when things fell into perfect alignment one night.  Kíli had found a small cave near the campsite and claimed it for his.  Then Tauriel drowning and Legolas in a panic over her.  I knew what I had to do. I told Legolas to take her to Kíli’s cave.  Once I got Legolas out and instructed Kíli on how to help Tauriel, well, I knew that nature and the prophecy would create the union of elf and dwarf by the time they emerged.  I was not disappointed in the slightest.  No one saw me smiling, but I was quite pleased with myself as Kíli announced his wife was healed.  I just chuckled and wondered now how the prophecy was going to make Kíli immortal. 

Needless to say, I was stunned when I realized on the mountainside it had happened.  I saw the immortal glow around Kíli and felt the magic in the form of new life in Tauriel.  I had not noticed it before that she was with child.  I was getting old and tired to have missed that.  But when I had to heal Fíli and Thorin, I went to ask the baby to help heal them and was stunned to feel not one, but six spirits in Tauriel.  I guess the prophecy was taking no chances here.  I had to keep them from making Fíli and Thorin immortal as I knew the time was not yet right for them, but it would be soon. 

Most likely after the babies were born, they would take matters into their own hands.  I would have to send Kíli and Tauriel to see Galadriel, so she would know and send the word out that the prophecy was being fulfilled.  I wished I could be there to see her face, I chuckled.  I could not help myself but congratulate Tauriel on her blessings. I just muttered to myself, ‘better you two than me.’  They would have their hands full.  But they were deeply in love, and the prophecy would see to it that they would be watched over.  I knew the time for Ilúvatar to come back was close at hand if the prophecy was now being fulfilled.  It would be good to stop criss crossing the continent putting out fires and finally rest for a while.

Fin 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All will reveal itself in the next 4 books, so any unanswered questions you may have, keep reading!  
> I swear EVERYBODY WILL GET AN HEA!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise, pinky swear.  
> All great things take time, patience grasshopper!  
> So if you feel like there is way more to be told that I did in book 1, give yourself a prize because you are so very right. 
> 
> ***This is a special request from me the writer, to you the reader. I have a general idea why this story wasn't a powerhouse. But only YOU can tell me what you liked or didn't like (AND WHY). I need this info like I need air...and chocolate. Any little thing gives me a clue and improves my writing and therefore your story! I want to make this shine and make you happy. My Kudo numbers compared to hit numbers tell me I am flubbing up somewhere. As a fanfic, I know you realize you will not be getting Outlander novel quality (oh how I wish I could) but I at least want to make it a story you want to bookmark and give a kudo to. Many thanks, my readers.

**Author's Note:**

> *OK. I lied-I had to give Arwen a happy ending. One of my friends named her new baby Arwen and that just made me have to slip that in here. (-Spoiler alert …but not until the 5th book LOL) I’m sappy, so sue me.  
> *Sigh…I lied again- A fan asked me to give Frodo a happy ending seeing as he really never truly got one. He did all that stuff and just ended up mental and alone in the undying lands. Sooo, he will be happier than a hobbit at a dwarven feast.  
> *Update-Gigolas jumped on my ship when I wasn't looking and is my newest OTP. Gotta fit them in with an HEA that keeps them in Middle Earth (that will be book 5 or 6-I'm trying to decide what to do with Thranduil. I don't kill good guys and he is insane, not a bad guy. I have a few ideas)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fili and Sigrid-An unfinished HEA](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17406737) by [PeneighDzredfohl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeneighDzredfohl/pseuds/PeneighDzredfohl)
  * [Thorin and Molly-An Unfinished HEA](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17406959) by [PeneighDzredfohl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeneighDzredfohl/pseuds/PeneighDzredfohl)




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